


Shades of Grey

by Icka M Chif (mischif)



Series: The Grey Series [1]
Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: Blanket Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2004-04-22
Updated: 2004-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-27 19:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 39,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1720286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mischif/pseuds/Icka%20M%20Chif
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It began with a blanket scenario...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blanket Scenario

**Author's Note:**

> I've got several requests for all of the Grey Series to be posted to Ao3, so setting aside the time to do it. Prolly be a little slow going, please bear with me. 
> 
> Thanks to [Yukitsukihana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/yukitsukihana/pseuds/yukitsukihana) for the beta.

• • • 

Shades of Grey: Blanket Scenario  
by Icka! M. Chif

• • • 

The first thing Hakuba Saguru saw when he opened the door was the barrel of a gun aimed right between his eyes.  
Looking past the gun and the white clad arm that held it, he found himself staring into the face of the person he had been chasing, the Kaitou Kid.

Silence stretched, the Kid's expression blank, his eyes hidden by shadows and the white gleaming deamon's eye he called a monocle. Neither of them moved, the only sound filling the dark cabin the howling snow-heavy wind outside.

He supposed he could jump the thief, but quite frankly at this moment, he didn't see what good it would do. The thief most likely still had a full armament of his tricks, gadgets and weaponry, while all he currently had was a pair of handcuffs and his pocketwatch. Even if he did succeed, there was nothing to keep the Kid from simply escaping the handcuffs, knocking him out with sleeping gas and throwing him back outside into the snow.

Kid the Phantom Thief was non-violent on general principals. However, this did not mean that he would allow himself to be easily caught or captured.

And at this point, Hakuba was really too cold, too sore and too exhausted to really care.

The door behind swung shut with a deafening slam, extinguishing the sole light source and plunging the room into absolute darkness.

Hakuba remained still, senses straining for a sign of the thief, but as far as he could tell he was alone in the room.

Evidently, he'd been granted permission to stay. Huzzah and all that rot.

He reached behind him, his left hand running into the wall, which he then followed to a corner, where he sat down with a muffled groan, allowing shaking shivering limbs to finally rest. Following the Kaitou Kid through the snow had not been one of his brighter ideas. Granted, the weather reports hadn't called for this much snow to be dumped tonight, but he really should have listened to the advice of the older officers when they had looked at the sky and called off the hunt.

Logically then, he supposed he had no one to blame but himself. His stung pride still muttered that it was the Kid's fault. What the hell was the idiot thinking? Holding a heist in weather like this. It certainly made him harder to spot, like attempting to find the Abominable Snowman in the snow, but still, he could freeze like this.

...They both still could. He didn't need his eyes to know that his breath was coming up in white puffs in front of his face. It was warmer in the cabin than outside, but still too cold for comfort.

And it would get a lot colder.

They sat in silence, the Kid hidden somewhere around the room, him huddled in the corner.

Time passed, a half-hour according to his mental clock. It wasn't as accurate as his pocketwatch, but it worked. He was pretty sure he couldn't feel his lower legs or fingers now, despite the fact that he was wrapped up as much as he could. His inverness coat was damp, and it was making him colder.

He cleared his throat. "Truce?"

Silence echoed, and he could hear no sign of the thief. Panic flared in his chest. Had something happened to the Kid?

"Truce-?" The voice was soft, coming from a few feet away from him on the left. He turned his head, but couldn't see anything.

"We're going to freeze to death like this," He explained. Surely the Kid knew this as well. It struck him as somewhat odd, him, a detective, having to earn a thief's trust. Usually it was the thieves who were supposed to be untrustworthy. "I propose a truce for tonight. For survival."

"No games?" The Kid's voice came from the right this time, wispy and teasing. Ventriloquism.

"None." He agreed. "I will not attempt to capture or unmask you, on my honour. At least until we can get out of here safely."

Maybe his position wasn't quite as precarious as he had thought. The Kid might have had his full arsenal, true, but he was also trapped in a small room with a detective.

No wonder the Kid was playing shy.

Of course, this still didn't discount the possibility of waking up bound hand and foot in his skivvies in the snow.

"On your honour..." The thief's voice was musing, as if weighing just how much that was worth. He was annoyed at that, there shouldn't be any cause to call the worth of his word into question.

"Agreed."

Hakuba breathed a sigh of relief he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

A light flashed on, not pointing at him but still blinding none the less. "Several birds got to the chimney before we did." The Kid informed him, almost merrily from where he was crouched up in the rafters, a small electric torch resting beside him. "So it's pretty much useless, even if we did have material to burn."

"Which we do not." Now that his eyes were adjusting to the light source, he could see that the single room the cabin boasted was very Spartan. So Spartan, in fact, that it did not hold anything at all other than the ceiling, walls, floor, fireplace and themselves. Nothing to break up to use for firewood, and there didn't appear to be anything in the fireplace to burn at all.

The place was clean, he had to give the previous occupants that much.

"Correct." The Kid sat down on the rafter, leaning against one of the bracers and letting one of his legs dangle down in an entirely too-casual-to-be-appropriate gesture considering the fact that they were both still cold and damp from the snow.

It also put the neatly tied white oxford right at batting height if he were to stand up. But he was not a cat, so he remained seated and watched the Kid like a dog watching a smug cat sitting on top of a high wall instead.

"Which leaves us with only a few options." The Kid continued pleasantly.

He sighed in return, running a gloved hand through snow-damp bangs. No fire or any other sort of heaters to warm the place. There was only one option he could think of, which was practically textbook in its simplicity. "Body heat?"

"Body heat." The Kid nodded.

Joy. Oh, rapturous joy.

He briefly wondered when his thoughts had gotten so sarcastic. Probably around the time he's lost feeling in his rear from sitting on the cold floor.

"We can use my coat and your cape as blankets." He mused out loud, slightly surprised at just how casual he sounded. He might as well been discussing what sandwiches to have for a picnic in the park with a mate instead of bunking for the night with his favourite international criminal. "They should be large enough to cover both of us."

"Probably be best to use mine to lay on." The Kid nodded, equally as casual. "It's not as much padding from the floor as your coat would be, but it won't be as warm either."

"Sounds like a plan." Hakuba muffled a groan as he winced and willed his heavy legs to unbend and move properly as he stood up, using the walls as a prop. "Any preference on where we sleep?"

Something flickered across the Kid's face, too fast for him to catch. "Corners would trap the warmth better than the open floor." The Kid rose, scooping up his hand torch as he moved, causing the shadows around them to shift. "I'd say I'd rather not be cornered in, but I'm afraid I'm out of luck there." A wiry twist of his lips accompanied the light comment.

"I will take the wall then." He shrugged gamely. Part of him protested the idea, wanting to be between the thief and the door. Not to keep the Kid from the door and possible escape, not that he would currently, but to keep what ever might come in the door from the Kid. Not that it was likely, but he was used to the role of protector.

Of course, a corner was the most defensible position as well. Not as much room if he wished to flee, but it meant that he had at least one direction that was safe from attack. Just because they were cooperating tonight didn't mean he should not expect mischief from the kaitou. Heavens knew he got it the rest of the time.

The Kid nodded, lightly jumping off the rafter. The landing wasn't so light, belying the Kid's own chilled and sore state. "Thanks."

He waved it off. "Welcome."

He unwrapped the scarf from around his neck and began to work on unbuttoning his coat, silently cursing his numb fingers which took great delight in fumbling and slipping from the large wooden buttons. The Kid set the small light down on the floor, the beam aimed up which lit the room relatively well, and began working on unattaching the fabric of the cape from the metal and plastic framework that it was tangled with. Finally the white material came free and he shook it out, the material proving to be larger than what the simple cape appeared to be.

Of course it had to be, to provide the skin of the hang glider. Buttons still half done, he gave an involuntary shiver from the cold air and took one end of the smooth cloth and helped the thief fold it in half, then lay it smoothly on the floor, making sure that there were no wrinkles to lay on trapped underneath. It was longer then they'd need, so the extra was folded up as place to rest their heads.

The Kid turned his back to him slightly as he then unattached the flying harness from the rest of his garments and Hakuba undid the rest of the buttons on the coat, spreading it out over the folded cape like a blanket. They undressed silently, pointedly not watching each as they stripping off coats, ties and belts, laying them out nearby to dry. Hakuba kept things towards where his head would rest, the Kid placing his possessions next to his side. Both were shivering by the time they were down to shirts, trousers and socks. And in the Kid's case, monocle and gloves. The dim light of the torch shadowed the Kid's face better than his hat could, and it was hard to make out his features. Not that Hakuba was trying.

"Ready?" the Kid asked, rubbing an arm for warmth or because he was nervous, it was hard to tell. Both of them were still slightly damp, but clothed and damp was better than naked and vulnerable. Or pointing and laughing.

"Yeah." He shrugged and crawled into the makeshift bed, pointedly laying on his right side so that he was facing the wall. He could hear and feel the slightly smaller boy curl up behind him, then helped to drape the large coat over both of them. It was wool, and stunk, but far superior to the alternative of freezing.

The Kid turned off the light and they huddled under the coat, their backs as close as they could get to each other without touching. Eventually they began to warm up, enough to get slightly more comfortable and stretch out a bit.

"Eep!" He bit back a yelp. "Your feet are freezing!"

The Kid shifted his feet away from Hakuba's. "So are yours." Was the sullen reply. "Blow me."

Hakuba growled in response and focused on -not- moving, because if he did, he would strangle his bed mate. Which considering that he was pretty sure the Kid had kept his card gun next to his head was a Bad Idea.

They lay there for a while, listening to the snow pile up outside and the wind howl around them, hyper aware of the other. A while passed before the warmth got to him and Hakuba felt his thoughts grow fuzzy with sleep. He finally allowed himself to relax, reasonably confident that the trickster wasn't going to do anything, at least not right away.

"G'Night." He whispered, finally letting go of consciousness and drifting off. The last thing he was aware of was the soft voice of the Kid wishing him pleasant dreams.

• • •  
Hakuba woke up from a rather nice dream, feeling quite warm and fairly content. Aside from a rather cold nose, that was. He wrinkled his nose in annoyance and buried his face into his pillow, which was warm and smelled kind of spicy, even if it was a bit fuzzy against his cheek.

Details niggled at his brain as he did so, sleepily trying to recapture pieces of the fading dream, even as they slipped through his fingers as elusive as a ghost's touch. He should probably wake up, but he was warm here, and comfortable, and the air on his exposed skin was freezing. Moving was not an option he wanted to sleepily consider.

Then the small random facts that had been niggling at the back of his brain came together with a decisive 'click' and Hakuba had what could be counted as a very considerable 'Oh Shit' moment.

He was curled up against the Kid, his face buried at the junction of the slightly smaller boy's neck and shoulders, the dark spiky hair pressing against his cheek. One arm was pressed between their two bodies, the other wrapped possessively around the Kid's chest. Their legs were intertwined, pressing his certainly not protesting nether regions against the curve of the thief's buttocks.

And if the rapid heartbeat under the open hand pressed against the Kid's chest was any indication, the thief was very much awake and aware of their positions.

He'd been molesting the Kid in his sleep. Hakuba felt his face go red as he tensed and untangled himself from the kaitou with as much dignity and grace as he could muster. Which wasn't much under the circumstances. He turned back around and facing the wall once more. "Sorry."

The Kid was silent, lying unmoving for several moments and Hakuba winced, feeling smaller than a few centimetres high. That was not what he had intended to do at all, and now he had made an uncomfortable situation even more uncomfortable for the both of them. How was he supposed to chase after the thief now? Especially without making himself look like more of a pervert?

Finally, just when he was contemplating the merits of hara-kiri, the Kid spoke, his voice soft and curious. "So you... like guys?" There was no retribution or scorn in the tone, just a curious question.

He winced anyway. "Sort of." He couldn't bloody well lie his way out of the situation. And after forcing himself on the thief as he had, the Kid deserved the truth anyway. "There are a few girls I'm attracted to, and some guys. It depends." He didn't consider himself gay, or bi, and it wasn't like he was on the market for a significant other anyway. It was just that some people he found more attractive than others, regardless of the gender.

He swallowed. "You?"

The Kid was silent again. "I don't know." He finally quietly admitted.

One of Hakuba's eyebrows rose. "But I thought you liked A..." He cut himself off. Accusing the Kid of being Kuroba or vice versa would just get the magician thief to shut himself off again. And he found himself curious as to what his answer was.

"There -is- a girl I'm fond of." The Kid continued softly, ignoring the question as if it had never been spoken. "But... not the way you think. And she'd be a whole lot safer with someone else. So I never thought about it."

"You never-?" That didn't make sense.

The Kid snorted. "I'm a Kaitou, Tantei-san. And in case it's escaped your attention, it's not exactly the safest profession out there. I can't -afford- to think about it. It's too risky."

It made sense, from the thief's point of view. Other people couldn't be used against him if he was alone. And similarly, if he were caught, he wouldn't bring anyone one else down with him. But still... it was just rather hard to wrap his mind around.

Especially for someone as attention seeking as Kuroba.

"So wait... You have not even -kissed-?!"

"Shut. Up." The growl there was more Kuroba than Kid. Gone were the mockingly polite precise tones of the Kid, to be replace by the annoyance of a wild teenage boy his age.

"Sorry. It's just that considering your reputation of a ladies man, and all your fans..." Not to mention Aoko and Koizumi chasing him as Kuroba. Or in Koizumi's case, as the Kid as well. That woman could be down right scary.

A surly grumble answered him, even more Kuroba-like than before. If he hadn't been one hundred percent sure before that Kuroba was the Kid, he was now. "...like you've got so much more experience..."

"-I-" Hakuba said loftily "at least dated at my old school." Not that it ever went very far due to his hectic schedule as well as the robberies, the murders and the other assorted gruesome things that came with the profession. Not that he was going to tell the other boy that.

A low growl was his only response and he realised that he might be pushing his boundaries a bit -too- far.

"Sorry." He apologised again. "It is just rather a bit of a surprise. But it could not hurt to try, could it?" He shrugged. It would certainly make Aoko-kun happy, that was for sure.

The dark-haired boy shifted, leaning slightly more in his direction. "All right, fine. Tell you what." A slight mocking grin was back in the Kid's voice. "I'll make a wager with you. If you manage to cuff me on a heist, I'll do anything you want for a night."

Hakuba half rolled over in surprise, but caught himself. "You are joking."

"Nope." He could practically feel the pranksterish grin on the magician's face. "One Kaitou at your service for what ever you say, one night only."

"Rather confident of yourself, are you not?" He smirked back. A rather high price to pay for a game.

"Yup."

"All right. You are on." He awkwardly reached his right hand, which he was still partially laying on, over his body and a gloved hand of the Kid's took it, and they shook to seal the wager.

"Be rather interesting to watch you fulfil that promise from behind prison bars." He commented, pulling his hand back down against his side.

"Now who's the confidant one?" The Kid retorted, amused. "You're assuming I'd stay caught."

He did have a point there. Same quandary he'd had here. Catching the Kid was one thing. Keeping him caught was another.

"We shall see." A yawn blindsided him, reminding him that it had still been a long day with very little sleep, all embarrassment aside. "... after tonight however." Their truce was still in effect after all.

"Oi." A sharp elbow jabbed him in the back. "Roll back over." The Kid ordered, rolling onto his side again.

"Huh?" He blinked, surprised by the request.

"Roll over to your other side." Kid repeated. "Like you were before."

Hakuba frowned. "Are you sure?" He didn't want to do anything to make either of them uncomfortable.

"Yeah." The other boy urged impatiently as a slight shiver made the coat shake a bit. "It was warmer that way!"

He chuckled slightly, and not just a bit ruefully at the comment, rolling over to obey the command. The Kid grabbed his arm as he did so, curling it around him once more like a secondary blanket under the coat-blanket. Hakuba leaned his head against the back of the Kid's, in a looser, less intimate embrace.

The Kid was right after all. It was warmer this way.

• • •

It was the cold that woke him up again. And this time when he opened his sandfilled and gritty feeling eyes, he found the sun peering weakly through the cracks in the window's coverings and his bed mate was missing.

Thus explaining the cold air.

There was some light now too, coming in from the windows and he sat up with a stretch, joints popping and muscles protesting having slept on such a hard surface. The Kid was gone, leaving no trace of his ever having been there.

Which figured.

Although he was rather annoyed with himself for having slept through the Kid removing his cape from underneath him. He'd suspect pink sleeping gas as the cause but the usual foul after taste that the gas left was missing.

Leaving the disturbing thought that he'd been comfortable enough in the thief's presence to sleep as soundly as he normally did. Which was to say, like the dead.

. . . .

He pushed that thought aside and grabbed his suit coat, shoes and tie, which were fortunately still laying above his head within reach, apparently untouched, and pulled them under the inverness coat to warm them up fractionally before he donned them. Pulling on freezing garments in the cold was not exactly a feeling he enjoyed.

Hakuba waited until they weren't so cold before slipping on his garments and putting his arms through the giant coat's sleeves. He rose then, the coat falling around him like it normally did and hastened to button the coat shut before any more of his accumulated warmth could escape.

The tie however, he didn't bother with and simply stuck it in his pocket. His fingers were simply too sluggish to deal with a windsor knot currently and he doubted anyone would take offense to his not wearing it.

He stretched, coaxing more warmth into his stiff limbs and gave the room one last perfunctory sweep as he wound the scarf around his neck, making sure they had left nothing behind. Aside from a clean patch where the Kid's white cape had lain -he briefly wondered if the cape was now stained-, there was no sign that they had spent the night there at all. Fair enough.

Thus satisfied, he opened the front door to step outside and abruptly froze. It wasn't the blast of chilled air that made him pause, it was the lack of footprints in the pristine white snow that blanketed the landscape.

'Phantom' thief indeed.

Glancing down, he noticed that there was another pair of footprints in the snow besides his dusted with clumps of snow. A few crunching steps out into the snow and a glance up revealed that the snow above the door had been partially knocked off, a pair of smudged footprints resting up there.

He smirked to himself. It was a nice trick, climbing up to the roof to take off and thereby escape leaving a clear path for Hakuba to follow. But not quite clever enough. If his memory served correctly, there was a road to the east that lead back towards the town. All he had to do was head towards the sun to find the road.

A plan which would have worked better if it didn't involve sliding down knee-deep snow covered hills. While it was faster to go down the hills on his posterior, it was rather painful and not the least bit dignified. He was rather glad that he was the only one in the forest to observe this foolery.

It also meant that he became quickly snow-covered and by the time he found the road, he began to feel much like an abominable snow creature. And about as chilled as a yeti as well.

He was exceedingly grateful when after several minutes of walking down the marginally easier to traverse road a cheerful older gentleman in a pickup truck offered him a ride back to town, commenting on the way that young people these days had no common sense in the empty space between their ears that they called a brain.

Hakuba didn't quite understand that statement until he opened the truck cab door and found a second person in the vehicle, a brown haired girl in braids and bright multi-coloured jacket and skirt. An eye peeked at him as he climbed in, then closed as she curled back up, apparently taking a nap.

The old man chuckled as Hakuba found himself yawning in the warmth of the cab as he loosened his clothing so he wouldn't freeze when he got outside again. The old man advised him to take a quick nap, they'd be to town shortly. He thanked him and followed the girl's example in curling up for some shut eye, not quite dozing.

The truck continued slowly on its way, bouncing in the uneven ground, jostling them quite a bit. The girl ended up partially sprawled across him as they hit a particularly big bump, her hair shoved into his face as he wrapped an arm around her to prevent her from falling further. She smelled of old chemicals, cosmetics and underneath of the same slightly spicy scent of the Kid he had woken up to earlier that night.

Hakuba helped her sit up right again, a faint smirk tugging on the corner of his lips as he kept an arm around her, as much as for balance as for his own amusement. "Caught you." He whispered just loud enough for the other to hear.

An amused violet eye glinted at him as the Kid dug a sharp elbow dug into his ribs in retaliation.

-fin-


	2. Challenge Answered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He caught the Kid. The next move belongs to the thief.

• • • 

Hakuba wasn't quite sure how this game was going to be played.

It was a sensation he should be used to, the uncertainty. He was never certain when it came to the thief. But it usually didn't leave butterflies wiggling in the pit of his belly.

For tonight, he'd caught the Kaitou Kid.

... Sort of.

As per their wager, he'd handcuffed the Kid. One cuff anyway, the Kid had escaped from the heist with the other cuff hanging from his wrist like an overly large shiny charm bracelet.

So he wasn't sure if that counted as a win in his favour or not.

And really, when he thought about it, that call wasn't his to make. It was the Kid's. It was the thief's choice to show, or not to show as the case may be.

Sort of like a heist, but without the calling card to warn him in advance. It seemed like a great deal of his time was spent waiting for the Kid, really. Waiting for a heist notice, waiting for the day of the heist, waiting for the Kid's appearance.

Like he was currently, curled up on a couch in the upstairs library with his glasses on, staring at the book in his hand and debating on if he should turn on a light or not. The fireplace was lit, but hardly provided enough illuminated in the room to see the print on the pages. Not that it really mattered; he'd been staring at the same page anyway for about twenty minutes without actually reading it. Although he was pretty sure that the first word was 'The'.

A slight breeze, cold against his flame warmed clothing caused him to startle faintly, and look up towards his right. Sitting sideways on the windowsill, one leg still resting outside was the Kid, the silver light from the moon outside hitting his white clothing and making him glow. The Kid froze, as if he were ready to bolt at the slightest noise.

Hakuba held himself perfectly still, watching the Kid. A distant part of his mind wondered who was more surprised, himself or the thief.

Then the moment passed and the Kid finished sliding inside, closing the window after him. There was a sort of finality around the Kid, like he was sealing his own doom.

Hakuba waited, giving up all pretence of reading the book. When the Kid continued to just watch him, he finally cleared his throat. "Good Evening."

The Kid raised an arm, the silver cuff still attached to his wrist. "I believe this is yours." The voice was calm and his expression bland, no matter how nervous the Kid might have been on the inside.

"I am rather amazed you did not remove it yourself." It was a standard issue handcuff; if Kid couldn't get out of it on his own in under a minute, Hakuba would eat his hat.

"That wasn't part of our agreement."

'One kaitou at your service for what ever you say, one night only.' That is what the Kid had said, was it not?

A Gentleman Thief indeed.

"True." Hakuba set the book down on the table next to him, not bothering to bookmark the page. He was sure he could find the page that started with 'The' again with reasonable ease. "I will take that off for you, if you would like."

"Thank you." There was only the faintest edge of sarcasm mixed in there as the Kid glided across the room, the cape moving like a liquid moonbeam as the light on the white tux shifted from silver to the gold of firelight. Kid stopped in front of him, the cuffed arm slightly extended outward.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow, unable to resist the slight smirk teasing his lips as he reached up and tugged on the Kid's wrist. "Sit."

The muscles in the thief's arm tensed briefly, then relaxed slightly as he allowed Hakuba to draw him down on the couch, white legs straddling the detective's lap and bringing their faces to a more even level. Or at least more level if the Kid wasn't holding himself so stiffly. As it was, Hakuba was about eyelevel with the middle of Kid's nose.

Well, the Kid was awfully fond of heights...

Hakuba pulled the key out of his shirt pocket and undid the lock on the handcuff, the cuff opening and sliding free with a metallic click. Wrist freed, he closed the cuffs, relocking them and set them on top of the book as well, next to his glasses. The key he dropped into the cracks between the couch cushions. The Kid was being passive now, disturbing so, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be mischief later.

A part of his mind noted that the Kid did not rub his wrist where the cuff had lain either. Kid merely returned it to his side, the hand clenching and unclenching as gloved knuckles brushed the couch cushions.

They both just looked at each other, the moment stretching into silence. The fire backlit the thief's face, sending it into shadows except for glimmers where the light caught the glass of the monocle and glowed. What he could see of the Kid's face was blank, except for a stubborn set to the jaw.

He had the Kid in his hands right now. What he chose to do could quite literally could make or break the phantom thief.

Hakuba slowly raised an arm and removed the top hat from the Kid's unruly locks, feeling the leg muscles bunch up and tense against his own as the thief prepared to flee. To his credit, then Kid didn't make a sound as Hakuba set the hat down on the couch cushion next to them.

Or he could use this opportunity as a foot in the door.

He brought his left hand up, fingers brushing the Kid's cheek as he reached back and cupped the back of the Kid's head with his hand, the monocle pressing into the heel of his palm. There was a small resistance as he pulled the Kid down, bringing their faces close together, close enough that he could feel the Kid's breath on his skin. There was a slight twitch of the shoulders as dark eyes closed, as if resigning himself to the inevitable.

Hakuba smirked, bumping their foreheads together. "Idiot." He couldn't quite keep the amusement out of his tone. "If you do not want to be here, Then Go. Home."

That got a reaction. The Kid jerked, tilting his face up slightly so that they were more at eye level. Violet eyes stared at him, confusion clearly written in them, despite the fact they were blurry from the closeness.

"I am not THAT much of a bastard." Hakuba grumbled, releasing his grasp on Kid's head. Kid leaned back, losing some of the doll-like movements as he did so. They stared at each other again, but this time the silence was different. More gauging.

Hakuba had very little qualms about admitting that he was a bit of a control freak. But sometimes you had to give up some control to gain control. Scaring the Kid off right now would get him nowhere. However, if he could get the magician-thief to come -back-...

"What?" Hakuba gave him a droll look when he felt the silence stretching a bit too long. "You were expecting me to toss you on my bed, strip you of your clothing and pound you into the mattress?"

The dirty look he got for that that brightened Hakuba's mood incredibly. "Actually," There was a hint of hesitation in the thief's voice that he'd never heard before. "I wasn't quite sure what to expect."

In many ways, that was probably the most honest statement Hakuba had ever gotten from him. As either the Kid or Kuroba.

"That makes two of us then." He admitted back, the smirk still tugging at the corners of his mouth. Kid smirked back in response, muscles relaxing marginally.

"You must have had some idea." The Kid pointed out. "Or we would't be in the position we're in currently."

"True." Hakuba agreed, daring enough to rest his hands on the Kid's white-clad legs and hearted when the thief didn't tense away. "Back at the cabin... you said you were not certain if you perfered gentlemen or ladies. I was thinking... perhaps we could find out?"

"Find out?" There was an amused tone now, like Kid was either playing along, or genuinely entertained by the idea.

Hakuba shrugged. "You also said that you had never kissed."

That sobered the Kid a bit, tensing slightly, but not as much as he had before. "And if I don't-?" The question was cut off, as if the thief reminded himself of his promise.

"And if you are not comfortable with that suggestion, then there is a Chinese Checkers board over there by the corner." He motioned with his head towards where a board was sitting. "Or you could leave, no questions. Your call."

The Kid's posture changed, radiating a more calculating air. "What? No Chessboard?"

"Set up downstairs. Or I've got Parcheesi in the hall cubboard."

That earned him a funny look. "...Board games."

Hakuba shrugged. "I figure I cannot lose." If the Kid didn't like kissing, he had still gotten a chance to kiss the Kid. Point in his book. If the Kid didn't like kissing -him-, well, hopefully Aoko would get something out of it. If they ended up playing board games, it would be an interesting intellectual challenge. Hell, at this point he had a lap full of not-protesting thief, that had to count for something...

The Kid made an amused sound, obviously having a similar train of thought. "All right." A mocking smirk was back on his face, game face clearly restored now that some ground rules had been laid. "So what should I know first, Sensei?" The last was said in an insolent drawl.

One of Hakuba's eyebrow's twitched in annoyance at the honorary title. "Well, a willing partner is helpful." He jabbed back, making what he could see of the other boy's smile twitch in mirth. "And... relax. It is more fun that way."

"Relax." The Kid arched an eyebrow, as if pointing out that he, a phantom thief, was currently inside of a ranking police officer's house. And sitting on the lap of a detective, no less. Not the most ideal place for a law-breaker to relax.

Hakuba shrugged. It wasn't as if they had to worry about someone bursting in. His Father was almost never home, the Housekeeper was away, taking care of a sick relative for several months, and Mum was still in England. Even if someone was in the house other then themselves, they'd hear the approach long before they would be in trouble. And all the lamps were out of arms reach, leaving them in shadows. It was as secure as he could make it.

"All right." The Kid dropped his head down so that their hair mixed together, dark hair with blond. "And then?"

"And then..." He tilted his head to the side to avoid clashing noses, eyes briefly closing as he brushed his lips against the Kid's. He was pleased to note that the Kid didn't shy away from that, a tiny thread of worry dissipating. He did it again, lingering longer this time. And a third time when there was no resistance.

Hakuba leaned back slightly, giving them both some breathing room even as he became aware of the faster beating of his heart, belatedly realising how nervous he had been about the whole affair. "All right?" He asked, hoping that he sounded casual about it.

"Yeah." The Kid agreed and Hakuba was pleased to note that the thief's voice was a less than steady.

"More?"

A weighty pause followed, as if the boy on top of him was debating just how far he was willing to go. It wasn't too long before he answered however. "Okay."

"All right." This time when he tilted his head up to kiss the Kid, the thief met him part way and there was an awkward press of noses and lips as they bumped into each other. They both pulled back, the Kid giving a muted embarrassed chuckle before they tried again.

Tense lips moved against his, slowly relaxing and un-tensing as the apparent anticipated proverbial shoe-to-drop failed to appear. The Kid did pause when Hakuba took the white clad arms and rested them on his shoulders, then relaxed as the intent behind the gesture became apparent. The Kid's balance shifted off the bent legs, leaning partly on Hakuba.

Although it was rather interesting to kiss someone who was smiling, he noted when the Kid discovered that the new position meant that he now had access to the hair on the back of Hakuba's neck. Not that Hakuba was complaining, not in the least.

Things faded away to a contented haze after that, his consciousness dissolving into the contented press of lips moving against each other, the occasional flash of tongue or brush of teeth when they paused for a quick pant of breath or two before resuming. Fingers lightly moving against warm fabric over smooth muscle and fabriced fingers playing the hairs on the back of his neck. The press of a leg against his own. Light touches, not innocent but not entirely innocuous either.

It was hard, sometimes, to remember not to lean to the side to nibble on an earlobe or see how the curve of the neck tasted. Especially when gloved fingers strayed towards his face. Hakuba had to remind himself several times that this was the -Kid- and he was -not- going to teach the thief how to French kiss tonight, no matter how tempting it was. Which was exceedingly so.

Tonight was about the simple pleasure of kissing. Maybe, hopefully, they could do that sort of -later-. If he didn't scare the Kid off now.

It came as quite a surprise when the grandfather clock downstairs chimed two in the morning.

Hakuba pulled his head back, drawing in a not-so steady breath as he opened his eyes, pleased to notice what looked like a blush on the Kid in the dim light. Unattended, the fire had faded into ashes, the light primarily coming in clear and silver from the moon outside the window.

He was also entertained to notice that the Kid's breathing wasn't entirely regular either. Good.

"As enjoyable as this is," He commented as lightly as he could. "Im afraid I must call an end to the night. Some of us do have school in the morning, which requires a modicum of sleep."

A brief widening of the eyes as fingers paused in their stroking of his hair, then a ghost of a chuckle. "You're kicking me out?"

"At least for the night. You are welcome back if you would like." He added sincerely. "-As long as its not to rob my house."

Kid snorted. "Not a problem." Slight pause. "Unless you receive a notice, but that's another story entirely."

"I will keep that in mind." Hakuba quipped dryly as the Kid slid backwards both off the couch and his legs, picking up his hat as he went. Blood circulation resumed to his lower limbs and he remembered why one didn't do that for long periods at a time. He grimaced, digging the heels of his hands into his thighs, attempting to massage out some of the pins and needles pain so he could stand up.

... Not that it wasn't worth it.

"Not one comment about my weight." The Kid quipped, standing stiffly and shaking his legs out as well.

"You are as light as one of your doves." Hakuba commented blandly, clearly meaning the opposite, his limbs quite firmly asleep. "How are you able to even -stand-?!"

"Practise." was the succulent reply. It was a hard reply to argue with. "And on that note -and while you are incapacitated- I shall wish you a good night and a pleasant rest."

"Sleep well." He responded in like as the Kid bowed, tipping his hat before disappearing in a cloud of smoke and stars.

Well, at least he'd left out the streamers and confetti this time, Hakuba thought with a wince as he pulled himself upright by the couch's arm rest and wobbled a moment before getting his balance. No mess to clean up. Which was just as well, he was ready for bed.

But first, a nice cold shower...

-fin-

_  
-+ OMAKE By Dogmatix +-_

_Omake:  
Hakuba raised an eyebrow, unable to resist the slight smirk teasing his lips as he reached up and tugged on the Kid's wrist. "Sit."_

_Kaito immediately face planted into the ground as the handcuffs jerked him furiously down. "The hell?!" Kaito squawked from the floor, his dislodged monocle rolling to one side._

_Kaito looked up, bewilderment written all over his face. Hakuba recognized Kaito immediately. Or most of him. He was ~not~ expecting the gold eye with the slit pupil that the monocle had hidden_

_-+ Cut Scene +-_

_"As enjoyable as this is," He commented as lightly as he could. "I'm afraid I must call an end to the night. Some of us do have school in the morning, which requires some modicum of sleep."_

_A brief widening of the eyes as fingers paused in their stroking of his hair, then a ghost of a chuckle. "You're kicking me out then?"_

_"At least for the night." He tilted his head to the side, unable to resist teasing. "Unless you care to join me-?"_

_"Pass." The tone was amused._

_"Some other night then maybe."_

_"Tantei-san..." He could almost make out an incredulous look. "Are you inviting me -back-?"_

_"If you would like," He replied as neutrally as he could. "The offer of Parcheesi still stands."_

_"...You're serious about the board games."_

_"Games of strategy." He corrected._

_"Riiight."_


	3. Curiosity brought the Kaitou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hakuba missed a heist, Kid stops by to see why

• • • 

Hakuba startled at the warm press of skin against his forehead and opened his eyes to see wide violet ones staring at his own from scant millimetres away.

"No fever..." a voice murmured as a hand ran across his bangs.

It was just the Kaitou Kid. Content with that analysis, Hakuba closed his eyes and drifted off again, hands leaving his skin.

He then bolted upright, his brain clicking on as he pulled the covers back from the bed as he swung his legs out. "I am going to be late for the Heist!!!"

"You mean this?" From a few paces away, the Kid held up a glittering pendant of diamond and alexandrite.

"Exactl-" He paused in mid-action, his mind belatedly catching up to the rest of him.

One. The room was dark, the only light on being the lamp he had turned on beside his bed. Night had obviously fallen.

-Logically, much time had passed since he was last conscious. Several hours by his mental clock.

Two. The Kaitou Kid was in his room, grinning as he held up the object of tonight's heist.

-Therefore, enough time had passed for the heist to be well and over with.

Three. He wasn't wearing any trousers. At least he was wearing his shirt and underpants. But with the covers back, it was a bit chilly on his bare legs.

Hakuba rubbed an eye with the heel of one hand, regretting the fact that he had fallen asleep with the contacts in. "Could you hand me my trousers please?" he finally asked, motioning to where he had draped them over the computer chair across the room with as much dignity as he could muster. If he just pretended everything was normal, he might be able to maintain some of his tattered shreds of pride.

Thankfully the Kid did so without comment, handing Hakuba his trousers and not quite entirely turning his back on him, but obviously finding the pictures on the wall highly fascinating.

Hakuba yawned, finishing sliding out of bed and pulled on his trousers. Definitely rated high up on the ‘bizarre ways to wake up’ scale. He didn't even remember falling asleep. He had just sat down for a moment in the process of changing his clothes before going to the heist. Obviously he'd been more exhausted than he had thought... "Not that I am complaining in the least mind you, but what are you doing here?"

"You did say I was welcome back, correct?" There was no teasing in the question, it felt more uncertainty than anything else.

Hakuba frowned slightly as he fastened his trousers and settled them comfortably on his hips. "Of course."

Kid nodded, the cape twitching slightly as shoulders un-tensed. "I was curious as to what happened to you when you didn't appear during the heist. I saw your light on while passing by and thought I'd stop in."

"Ah." Hakuba yawned again and looked around for a shirt. "I just flew in from London a few hours ago, in time to for the heist actually, but evidently I was more knackered than expected." Failing to spot one he wandered over to the wardrobe rummaged around for a pullover to wear over his shirt.

Kid chuckled. "Jet lag is a bitch."

"Something like that," he agreed, finding one and pulling it over his head. His eyes felt like sandpaper and he rubbed at them. "Are you in a hurry?"

"Hmm?" Kid glanced at him. "Not really. Why?"

"Stay right here, I will be back in a tick." He yawned, heading towards the bathroom that was connected to his bedroom, slipping the contacts from his eyes. A vague part of his mind questioning just ordering the thief to stay put. Neither Kuroba nor the Kid were exactly known for doing what they were told. He shrugged as he put the contacts in their containers with the cleaning solution as fast as he could and splashed some water on his face. He felt marginally more awake for it as he stumbled back out to his bedroom.

The Kid was still there, although closer to the open window, his blurry form looking around the dimly lit room with his hands in his pockets in what could be interpreted as a too innocuous to be believed gesture. Hakuba gave a small internal sigh of relief, picking his reading glasses off the computer monitor and putting them on, the room sharpening back into details. "Thank you."

The Kid shrugged in response.

"Have a seat." Hakuba grabbed a file from beside the computer and motioned towards the bed.

The Kid's head tilted in a curious gesture. "I didn't intend to intrude for too long."

"You are not intruding," Hakuba explained, pulling the covers somewhat straight at the head of the bed and sitting down cross-legged on top of them. He tossed one of the extra pillows towards the foot of the bed, then motioned for the Kid to sit down. "Have a seat, tell me what I missed."

That earned him an incredulous look. Hakuba gave a half shrug in response. "The Task Force's explanations tend to be a bit... over exaggerated."

Understatement.

"And you want to hear the other side of it." The Kid's tone was amused, but the posture was guarded.

"As much detail as you're willing to give," Hakuba agreed easily. "'We will get that bastard next time' is not a very good caper summary."

"I do not do Capers," Kid informed him haughtily. "I orchestrate Heists, not Capers. Capers imply frolicking. Heists are Serious Business."

A brief mental image of the Kid skipping along and tossing flowers out of his top hat like it was a basket as Nakamori growled and chased him passed through Hakuba's mind. He kept his mouth shut. "I see."

With more dignity than any one person should have the right to possess, Kid sat down at the foot of the bed. Hakuba took the opportunity to spread the notes that he had on the blankets between the two of them. "From the information I have, I was expecting you to-" He pointed to the diagrams, outlining the possible routes and tricks he'd been calculating the thief to use.

Kid was an attentive listener, occasionally adding comments about where the information he had deviated from what had actually happened, inserting short amusing observations. It was a refreshing change to have an audience who could not only keep up, but expound on the topic as well.

The only person knowing more about the Kid's habits, aside from the possibility of Nakamori, being the Kaitou Kid himself.

"You went to the roof?" He found himself frowning, his eyebrows coming down in an annoyed crease as the Kid narrated the last part of the heist. "Would it not have made more sense to escape through one of the side doors and make your escape into the crowd or to another building?"

The Kid spread his hands out eloquently. "I was anticipating you being there to attempt to foil my escape at the last moment." It was not quite a reproachful tone, but it was close. More of a sulk or a disappointed tone. "Security is tighter on the lower floors, mostly to keep people out instead of me in."

He'd have to get past more police to escape by the lower floors. But at the same time, it was a well-known fact that the Kid could fly. Glide. Close enough. Therefore it was more logical to change the pace, go down instead of up.

Hakuba had just about to open his mouth to explain this when the words died in his throat, the realisation of the current scenario he was in clicked into perspective. He was sitting in his bed room with an internationally wanted thief, a thief he was chasing no less, and giving him tips on how to evade the police.

The Kid lapsed into silence as well, an awkward moment filling the room.

Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, the silence was disturbed by the sound of a door opening downstairs. Both of them straightened, eyes wide in surprise. "Father," Hakuba explained in a muted whisper. "He's home."

The Kid raised an eyebrow. "I am not hiding under the bed," was his grumbled comment.

"Too cliché," Hakuba agreed. Although it would be interesting to see where the Kid would hide.

Or not, as the Kid slunk off the bed much like an over grown cat, picking up his hat as he went. "My cue to go."

"All right." He gave the thief a small grin. "Thank you for stopping by. It has been... fun."

"It has," The Kid agreed, smiling back as he donned his hat. Then leaned over and dropped a quick peck on Hakuba's forehead, a teasing parody of how he had woken up. "Good night."

"Sleep well," Hakuba echoed, briefly catching the Kid's wrist and dropping a kiss of his own in the palm of the gloved hand.

One last grin and the Kid was gone, vanishing like a white shadow out of the window. How he managed to disappear while wearing all white was still a mystery to Hakuba.

Vaguely familiar footsteps walked down the hallway, pausing outside the door, then a light rapping on the wood surface before the door opened a crack. "Saguru-kun? You still awake?"

"Just looking over heist notes," He replied honestly.

His Father nodded, large laughing face taken up by a wide yawn. "Don't stay up too late," His father admonished, closing the door to head to his own rooms to sleep. "Good night."

"Pleasant Dreams, Father," he called after him. He might have gotten a response, he might not have. It was late and his Father looked dead on his feet.

Hakuba smiled to himself, glancing over the pile of paperwork spread out on the bed before gathering it all up to catch some rest of his own.

If nothing else, it had been a most interesting and productive night.

-fin-


	4. Balcony Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid stops by for a chat

• • • 

It had not been a good night, Hakuba mused to himself as he wandered around the large empty house, doing a final check and locking up before retiring to the rooms upstairs. The heist had been its usual invigorating self, full of twists and turns. It was merely the getaway where things had gotten tricky.

Hakuba was becoming increasingly less enamoured with guns as of late. 

Especially ones aimed at the Kaitou Kid.

His thief.

The Task Force and the rest of Nakamori's officers had been exceedingly helpful in attempting to track down the perpetrators, for all the good it did. The Kid may not have been their favourite person, but no one certainly wanted the thief dead. At least not by someone else's hand.

At least the weather had been comfortable enough for it, he noted absently as he stepped out on to the library balcony. Not cold enough to call for the inverness coat, but not so hot that they all swam in their suits. And the breeze had been welcome, even if it had been to the Kid's benefit.

He paused, resting the cup of tea he'd been carrying with him on the balcony railing, the aforementioned breeze brushing past his face and mussing the hair in the front of his face. He took a deep breath, enjoying the silence before letting it out again, relaxing in the night air. 

Hakuba was just about to turn back to head inside when a patch of white out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

"Kid."

Lounging on his back in the tree next to the balcony with his cape draped down like a white waterfall and much in a manner that reminded him of a giant white panther, was the Kid. If panthers held jeweled collars up the sky as if they held the mysteries of the world.

"My apologies for not coming inside," the Kid commented, never tearing his eyes away from the red brown jewel in the middle of the collar that his fingers were wrapped around, appearing like a bloodstain against the white fingertips. "I saw the upstairs light on, but at the moment it's a little too enclosed for my tastes."

The Kaitou Kid had been shot at inside the building before making it to the freedom of both outside and the night sky.

"Understandable." He drifted closer, stopping under the tree branch and resting his forearms against the railing, the Kid at his open back. "Are you unharmed?"

"They missed."

He had noticed that the thief usually had two main modes of conversation. Evasive or friendly. Evasive usually implied a fight, or more likely, flight was close. 

"That is not what I asked." The bullets had been awfully close.

A paused followed, and for a moment he was afraid he might have pushed too far. Then a soft sound that might have been a sigh or a muted chuckle. "Yes," the Kid finally said, amusement colouring his tone, breaking it out of the cold professional kaitou's inflections. "I'll have to do a bit of sewing later, but they avoided actually hitting me."

Translation: The Kid had avoided them hitting him. He shot a flicker of a smile up at the lounging kaitou, who was still not looking at him, but appeared to be a little less tightly strung. Hakuba felt his own shoulders relax in return, a worry fading away. "Good," he breathed, turning back to the night sky and taking a sip of the warm tea. 

He hated people taking pot-shots at his kaitou.

Time to change the subject before he grabbed the Kid to double check. 

"Did you find what you were looking for?" he finally settled on. Maybe not the best of openers, but it worked. Since the theft of the Blue Birthday, a pattern in the heists had developed. Instead of random but expensive objects, such as statues or paintings, the kaitou had become exclusively a jewel thief. 

A jewel thief running a search pattern.

This was about the same time that the heists suddenly became more dangerous as well... 

The Kid's response was unexpected. Instead of answering, he dropped the elaborate gold collar with its red-brown jewel in the centre down to Hakuba's view point and motioned for him to take it. Curious, he set the cup and saucer on the railing and grasped it, fingertips brushing the thief's white fabric-covered fingers in the process. The Kid's hands were warm through the material before he released the jewels.

Hakuba held the necklace up to the moonlight as the Kid had, allowing the silver light to catch the cinnamon-coloured stone set in the middle. It was something he had seen the Kid do on a few heists before disappearing. Study the gem, not the settings, in the moonlight. Hakuba never understood the gesture.

Hessonite, he mental reviewed clinically. Also known as Gomedh, the stone of Rahu, the Hindu God of serpents, who caused eclipses. A form of garnet, the red-brown colouration due to the presence of manganese in the stone. 

It was pretty, he had to admit that. Even if it was kind of strange, looking at a gem like this, especially since he had seen it mere hours ago, secure inside a plexiglass enclosed case. This was... more personal. Intimate. Like it was more than a piece of shiny cut rock in an elaborately crafted setting.

The Kid's voice, when he finally spoke was soft. "Does it glow red?" 

"... No." A little silver with the light, but not red.

A gusty sigh followed. Sad almost. Tired. "Then it's not what I'm looking for," was the simple answer.

A piece fell into place in the back of Hakuba's head. A stone that glowed red in the moonlight. That was what the Kid was looking for. Hence the search pattern and switch to exclusively jewels.

Wait. Back up. Gems did NOT glow red in the moonlight.

... And thieves weren't magical.

Right.

He raised his hand to return it and the thief waved him away. "Consider it returned," was the mild comment. 

"Thank you." He hesitated a moment, then slipped it into his shirt pocket. It was ungainly large for the small pocket, but it was better than trying to fit it in the pocket of his slacks. Professional clothing was not much for practicality sometimes.

Hakuba reached out to take a sip of tea again when he realised the cup was missing. The saucer was there, but no cup. Blast... Lifting up the glasses he peered down past the balcony, trying to see where it might have landed in the grass below. There wasn't enough light for him to see much though.

"Geh." He glanced back up at the Kid, glasses sliding back down on his face. The Kid had his tongue sticking out, parody of a grimace on his face as he peered into the teacup, which was safely cradled in his hand. "Haven't you ever heard of sugar?"

"I prefer my tea without," he commented drolly. Which was much better than his first thought, being 'wait, was that an indirect kiss?'

If it was an indirect kiss, the Kid certainly didn't seem to mind, seeing as he was taking a second sip. "To each their own." The thief shrugged casually, leaning back in the tree again having presumably taken ownership of the black currant tea.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "Thief."

The Kid didn't deign that with a response. Hakuba couldn't blame him. It was a rather daft observation.

"Why did not you sneak out the side door?" He asked instead, settling back on to somewhat familiar grounds. "The bastards with guns were expecting you to glide."

The Kid shrugged, pointedly looking away, tensing back up into flight mode. "Your plan," was all he said. 

Of course. A shaky sigh escaped Hakuba's lungs as he gripped the rail with his hands, focusing on the saucer still resting there. Hakuba had been the first one to point it out. If the Kid had changed his pattern, heading down instead of up, Hakuba would have figured it out in an instant and been there to intersect him. 

A less logical part of his mind pointed out that the Kid might have felt the suggestion had been a trap. That it had been offered in order to capture him. 

"I would appreciate that in the future, should you find yourself choosing between something I might point out and being shot at, you would be so kind as to follow the former," he finally ground out, aware he was speaking in a sharp clipped tone. "I do not wish you dead." 

A surprised catch of breath caught his attention. Turning his head slightly, he found the Kid with one hand clasped over his mouth, shoulders shaking as if he were either trying hard not to laugh, or if he had gotten some liquid down the wrong pipe.

"You all right?" he asked, straightening in alarm. Kid got it under control, removing the hand covering his mouth and waving him away. 

"I'm fine, I'm fine." It was then he was aware of the large grin on Kid's face. He relaxed again, watching as Kid got both is mirth and his breathing under control. "Thank you," the thief finally got out, his tone warm.

"You are welcome." 

They lapsed back into silence again, Hakuba shifting to press his hip against the side railing instead of leaning forward. This time the silence was more companionable, distinctly less tense. 

In a lot of ways, this... it wasn't quite a relationship or a friendship, not yet, but the process reminded him of taming and raising Watson. Lots of patience and offerings of food, real or metaphorically intellectual, greeted with masked casual indifference. Even then, there was no guarantee that either Watson or the Kid wouldn't simply choose to exercise their wings and fly away.

Perhaps one day, the Kid would consent to fly by his hand.

Light touches, little more than a gentle brush across the top of his head caught his attention, startling him out of his musings. A white blur passed outside of the glasses range of vision, one that was becoming increasingly familiar. 

Kid's gloved hand. 

Which had found his hair and was proceeding to gently comb the gel out of it. The pressure went from teasing brushes to a more sedate scratch, gently massaging the scalp under his blond hair, much like one would pet a cat or a dog. Which he might have protested if it didn't feel so blasted good. He could feel a tension headache that had been hovering at the edge of his senses fading away.

"You're farsighted, aren't you?" the Kid commented lazily, more of an observation than an insult.

"Hmmm... Long-sighted, yes," he agreed sleepily, finding his eyes sliding shut in contentment as he subtly shifted closer. "I wear contacts when not at home." He had yet to find a good set of contacts that didn't itch after several hours. It was often a relief to get home and switch over to the glasses. Outside out of house, he was often too active to wear the glasses.

"That would explain why your eyes kept changing colours." Kid's voice was soft. "I was wondering why sometimes they were blue, other times brown."

"They are usually blue when I am coming back from London or Europe." Hakuba admitted. "Brown when home."

He could practically feel Kid puzzling that out. "Camouflage?" the thief finally ventured.

"You could say that." He felt his head tilt forward and decided not to fight it, the magician's fingers switching from scratching up and down to small round circles at the back of his head. "I do not exactly 'blend in' to the crowd, my taste in fashion aside."

He'd gotten his height and colouration from his Mum, the pale skin and blond hair that set him apart from the native Japanese. The broad shoulders and solid build he'd gotten from his Father, along with the almond shaped eyes with just a hint of the eyelid that set him apart from the Europeans. 

A foreigner to both sides of his family.

The intelligence that came with both was yet another blessing/curse that set him apart from the people around him.

The Kid's fingers tightened, tugging on his hair, not enough to hurt, but enough to remind him that he wasn't alone in the not being able to blend in part. The Kid, or Kuroba, was too fiercely wild and intelligent to blend in easily as well. Like a wolf among the sheep.

He changed the subject. This was getting a little bit too close. "You said you saw the light on?"

"Mmm. Yeah." Kid's voice had the hazy burr of sleep thickening it. The sound was punctuated by a small yawn. "If all the lights are off, I figure you've gone to bed. If several lights are on, there's usually more than one person around."

Hakuba blinked. "Oh." That made sense. The previous time the Kid had stopped by, there had just been the lone light on... more shadows for the thief to hide in. Same with the first time as well. 

... Same with now, actually. It seemed as if a pattern had already been set down, of them meeting in between light and the dark.

In between the shades of grey.

Of course, now he felt stupid. He could have talked with the kaitou several times now if he had just been a bit more alert to their surroundings.

The Kid yawned again, his gloved hand moving from Hakuba's head, leaving a cold spot as the thief stretched. "I'm afraid that it is time for all good kaitou – and tantei – to be in bed." 

"Kaitou are good?" Hakuba couldn't resist the jab. 

"If we were bad, we'd be caught," the Kid informed him primly, swinging a leg over the branch he was reclining on to stand on top of the railing as if he had just dismounted from a motorcycle to the sidewalk. 

"True." The Kid crouched down, leaning forward slightly so that they were face to face, his dark eyes peering into Hakuba's. Hakuba blinked, slightly uncomfortable by the close scrutiny. "Is something wrong?"

"Golden-brown," Kid commented, reaching up to run the pad of his thumb across the arch of Hakuba's eyebrow, gently cradling the side of his face at the same time. "Your eyes. Like your hawk's."

"Hazel," he corrected. "That is what they call it in Europe. Golden Hazel." 

"It's very unique. I like it." The Kid smiled at him before taking advantage of their positions to lean forward slightly and kissing his cheek. "Good night, Tantei-san."

He caught the Kid's hand in one of his own, trapping it against his face long enough to press a kiss of his own on the thief's un-covered wrist. "Sleep well, Kaitou-san," he replied, releasing the Kid.

"Hup!" With an acrobatic twist, the Kid leapt upwards, disappearing into the tree branches. A rustle of leaves followed, then faded away. 

Hakuba smiled to himself, pushing himself off the rail. The teacup was now sitting on the saucer, which hadn't left the railing. He picked it up, surprised to find some tea left in the cup, still warm.

It tasted sweeter than before.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [More on Gomedh / Hessonite](http://astrospeak.indiatimes.com/articleshow.cms?msid=2763706)
> 
>  
> 
> Glasses thing is Fanon. We made it up. Pure and straight. But the image of Hakuba in glasses has been haunting us for a while. After talking to Dogmatix for a while, it was decided that he was long-sighted, like Watson. Probably doesn't have terribly good night vision either... ((Huggles Mati))


	5. Over Chess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conversations over chess

• • • 

Shades of Grey: Over Chess  
by Icka! M. Chif

• • • 

They were playing chess tonight. They both knew how to play and it seemed a shame to let the age-old battle of wits go to waste, especially with it sitting there.

And, Hakuba was pleased to note, the Kid was a very skillful opponent. Not that he expected any less. Hakuba was currently in the process of chasing the kaitou's queen across the board and anticipating check in about three moves.

"Question," Kid commented, his head idly propped up on one hand as he inspected the board. His hat was off, resting on a nearby chair, along with the cape, both within easy grabbing distance should the thief feel the need to flee. Sitting on that much material could sometimes become counter-productive to free movement, as Hakuba had experienced with his inverness coat.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow as Kid moved his bishop, examining the move in his head, looking for possible traps and reasonings for the move. "If I might ask one in return," he countered mildly.

The Kid paused, obviously debating the pros and cons of such an agreement. Finally he nodded, which pleased the detective to no end. He'd worked hard to earn the thief's trust and it was nice to see results.

"Very well," Hakuba agreed, moving a pawn forward before leaning back in his chair, waiting for both the Kid's next move and question. Check in two.

Kid leaned back as well, apparently turning his attention away from the chessboard for the moment. "Why do you do this?" he finally asked, a cautious curiosity to his voice as he motioned with his free hand towards the board.

"This?" Hakuba echoed, not quite sure about the question.

"This," Kid repeated. "The invitation to return, the games of strategy, the debates. If you wanted me in your bed, you could have simply wished it that first night instead of..."

"'Courting' you?" Hakuba finished, amused by both the confusion and his own choice of words.

A brief amused look passed across the thief's face as well, apparently finding the mental picture entertaining as well. "Exactly."

Hakuba rested his elbows on the armrests of his chair, lacing his fingers together in front of him. "I did not come to Japan from London because of your ability to do the splits," he replied honestly. "I came because I hoped to find an intellectual rival."

The un-monocled eyebrow rose. "How Sherlockian of you," was the dry quip.

"Of course, the fact that such a mind comes in an attractive package does not hurt either," Hakuba couldn't help but to tease, earning an amused look. "My question. Why do you keep coming back?"

Kid was silent for several moments, obviously putting some serious thought into the question.

Then he leaned forward and moved a pawn, setting off a trap Hakuba hadn't previously noticed that would result in a check on his own king in a few moves.

And the chase continued.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kid doesn't answer, because he doesn't have an answer right now. At least that is what I have been informed. ^^;;
> 
> The Sherlockian comment - comes from a conversation about how Sherlock wouldn't have a relationship with someone he saw as an intellectual inferior. (by 'relationship' we don't mean 'friendship') Therefore he never dated because he only met one female who was ever his intellectual equal, Irene, and she was married.   
> The conversation drifted on to that he'd prolly uke to Moriarty and yeah... ^^;; 
> 
> [Note: This was written very much pre-BCC Sherlock]


	6. Macho, Macho Men

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid's latest prank

• • •

Hakuba was ready for the Kid by the time the thief arrived. Usually the kaitou got the first word in, but this time he figured it was his turn.

And it was damn amusing.

"Nakamori-keibu is not pleased with you." He commented dryly from his chair as the Kid slipped inside the library's open balcony door, silent as a shadow.

This brought an instantaneous grin to Kid's face. "He didn't like my music choice?" Kid asked too innocently as he straightened, dropping the silent act.

"Somehow I doubt he would have appreciated any variety of music blaring from the police radios." Hakuba struggled to keep a straight face. "But was it imperative that you choose 'Macho Men'?"

"I thought everybody liked the Village People!" was the bright response. "And they have a policeman in their group!"

"... As well as quite a lot of innuendo concerning the group."

"Would you have preferred I played 'In the Navy'?"

"Pass."

Kid chuckled as he sprawled out in the other chair, long lanky limbs draped every which way as he made himself at ease. Or as at ease as he got while in Hakuba's house. "I couldn't find 'Cuban Pete' in time," the thief admitted, a bit of remorse in his tone. "Wanted to see if anyone knew how to Salsa dance."

"Somehow I doubt that even you could get the entire Police Force in a giant conga line." As soon as the words left his mouth, Hakuba realised that he had just set himself up. Kid took dares very seriously. "No! Wait! That is not what I meant!"

Too late. The Kid had that calculating gleam in his eyes that heralded doom, or a plan brewing in the twisted brain of his.

"Damn."

Kid laughed. "Relax, I don't think many of the Task Force know how to Salsa dance anyway." He hummed a bit of a tune, moving his arms and twisting his shoulders to the beat.

"I must confess to not knowing many who know how to Salsa dance, period," Hakuba retorted.

Kid took this the wrong way. "Do you?" The comment was just a little bit too eager there.

"...No..."

"No time like the present then." Kid bounced out of the chair, extending a hand towards him in a genteel fashion.

Hakuba paused for a moment, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Dammit, he knew he was asking for trouble when they first started these after-heist meetings, but somehow he hadn't pictured half the things they ended up doing. "As long as I do not have to dance backwards," he finally acquiesced, taking the gloved hand and allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.

"Could be worse," Kid offered.

"Yeah?"

"Could be teaching you how to Tango."

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... it takes Two to Tango.  
>  Shut Up!!! ¬_¬
> 
> Inspired by the [Cuban Pete scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dyO9SWiY7k) in the Jim Carrey movie 'The Mask' and [a Trigun AMV.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elLq7TlCCBQ)


	7. Kaitou Blanket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Catch a quick nap before you go?"

• • • 

He wasn't even aware the Kid was in the room until he felt the glasses being lifted off his face. He startled at the gentle movement, the book he'd been reading falling off his chest. He glanced up, attempting to focus on the blurry figure above him, looking much like a moving moonbeam.

"You're going to have funny marks on your face if you sleep with your glasses on," the Kid chided, not without some amusement, deftly catching the falling book before it hit the ground.

"My apologies." He sat up slightly, accepting the offer of the book's return with a yawn. "These late nights catch up after a while."

"A fact I'm well used to," the Kid informed him wryly, the clink of glasses being set down next to the lamp informing him where they were. "In that case, I'll cut tonight's visit short and we can discuss the heist another night."

"Wait." He peered up at the thief's face, attempting to get a reading on the Kid's status despite the dim light of the reading lamp behind him and his own long-sightedness. Nope. Couldn't see a thing besides a blurry blob of white shadow. Might as well gamble it. "Catch a quick nap before you go?"

Stillness followed, the only movement from the Kid being a tilting of the head. Then a shrug of the shoulders. "We've done before." Kid commented in a philosophical tone.

True. It was rather amusing that he'd slept with the Kid before he'd kissed him. ...Sleeping being just in the platonic sense, like tonight. Hakuba pulled his mind out of the 'dangerous thoughts' zone. "The couch is large enough for two comfortably."

Hakuba did not need to see to sense the Kid's amused look. "Right."

Which was how he suddenly found a warm blanket of phantom thief draped over him. The Kid's was head just below Hakuba's shoulder; hat gone somewhere and arms loosely wrapped around him. The rest of the Kid sprawled out against him, legs comfortably tucked between his own.

"You do things like this just to throw me off balance, do you not?" he commented, resting his hands on the Kid's cape-covered back in a loose embrace.

"Yup," Kid agreed easily, turning his head to the side, resting the un-monocled side of his face against him with a yawn. "No groping."

"Do not drool," he retorted, choosing not to take offense to the taunt.

The thief made an amused sound, breathing dropping off almost immediately. Either the Kid was more knackered than he had let on or was used to catching snippets of sleep whenever possible. Probably both, although Hakuba had no illusions that the Kid would instantly wake up if he made any sudden movements.

He dragged a hand up to the back of the Kid's head, lightly scratching the dark close-cut hairs there, much like one would with an over-sized cat. Kid let out a contented sigh, almost a purr as the lithe body relaxed further against him. Hakuba smiled to himself. "Mine..."

"Possessive bastard," the Kid countered sleepily.

Hakuba shrugged his un-laden shoulder and closed his eyes, tilting his head back as he allowed himself to drift off once more.

It was hard to argue with the truth.

-fin-


	8. Pr0n

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid stops by with a question for Hakuba

• • • 

It came as a rather large surprise to look up from the last part of that night's homework and find the Kid perched on his window ledge like an oversized white cockatoo.

Wide grin on his face, Kid lifted a hand up in greeting. "Yo!"

"Yo, yourself." He set his pencil down and turned to face the white-clad thief, making no effort to hide his mild confusion. There were no upcoming heists that he knew of and certainly none that he knew of tonight. Kid had never appeared on a non-heist night before, making this an unprecedented event.

"Got any popcorn in the house?" Kid asked without preamble, the grin widening in amusement, but no malice.

"Popcorn?"

"Popcorn." Like magic, a metallic round disk appeared in his hand. "I have a movie I want your personal opinion on."

"Movie," Hakuba repeated, realising that he was starting to sound like an echo. He shook his head slightly, clearing that train of thought. "Anything I should be worried about?"

The Kid debated the question momentarily. "Yes and No," was the final careful drawl. "Nothing illegal on my part. Yet."

Hakuba debated asking for more information, then dismissed it. Kid had made it quite clear that he was not going to purposely drag Hakuba into anything that might break the law farther than they had already bent with their nighttime visitations. If it was something he was bringing to Hakuba's attention, there was obviously a reason behind it.

"Give me eight minutes." He finally announced, rising. "Is the downstairs lounge all right?"

Kid flashed him a thumbs up before fading in a flicker of windblown curtains. "Peachy."

• • •

It took him seven minutes and forty three seconds. He appeared in the downstairs living area bearing a tray carrying a large bowl of popcorn and two mugs of steaming water. The room was apparently empty as he set the tray down on the coffee table in front of the couch.

The television turning itself on was the first sign that he was not actually alone. "Thank you for waiting until I set the tray down," he commented dryly without looking up as the Kid made himself comfortable on the couch.

"You are most welcome." The reply was as equally as dry. After all, it wouldn't do to startle the bearer of snacks and send the food flying across the room.

Thief or Tantei, they were still teenagers with the ravenous appetites that came with. And lost food was not a slight that was easily forgiven.

He did not quite sprawl out on the couch as the Kid had done, though granted it was quite a contained graceful sprawl when compared to Kuroba's usual movements, but he did make an effort to relax as he sat down on the cushions, placing the popcorn between them. Kid raised a remote, hitting various buttons that switched on the DVD player.

Hakuba picked up the mugs and offered one to the thief. "Tea and cocoa are on the tray," he informed him as Kid took the almost absentmindedly, hitting the play button causing the machinery to whirr.

"Thanks." A few pieces of popcorn were deftly snatched up and tossed into the air, only to be caught in the Kid's mouth as he reached forward, grabbing a packet of hot chocolate from the tray. A slight pause, and a tea bag was tossed at Hakuba with a conspiratorial grin. Hakuba smirked back as he caught the bag, amused. The tea was his usual flavour of choice. Trust the Kid to know.

Of course, he was probably one of the few people who knew of a certain thief's weakness for chocolate. Mostly through his observations of Kuroba, but still, it counted for something.

"So what sort of movie are we watching?" Hakuba asked, opening the foil packet and putting the teabag in the hot water.

"You'll see."

Kid was a touch smug as he stirred his hot chocolate. It was a bit expected, but none the less still irritating. Hakuba sighed to himself as he leaned back against the soft material of the couch and turned his attention to the screen.

Which appeared to have the Kaitou Kid slinking across the screen, illuminated by the moonlight. Only it was not actually the Kid, at least the Kid Hakuba was familiar with. This Kid was older for one thing, definitely taller and heavier.

And had the habit of pausing in the most alarming suggestive poses...

"That is not you in disguise, is it?" Hakuba ventured.

"No."

"Oh, good." He was not exactly sure why he was pleased that that wasn't the real Kid, but he was. Even if it served to make the thief next to him even more amused.

It also served to make him even more confused when someone, taller than the Mock-Kid, blond and dressed in an inverness coat, a deerstalker cap and waving handcuffs, interrupted the heist by jumping the Mock-Kid in an empty office. It was almost a bit of a relief, in Hakuba's opinion. It was an exceedingly lame heist, as such robberies went.

Except...

"Is that... Is that supposed to be me?!" he questioned as the two wrestled on the camera. Very unprofessional wrestling at that. You were not supposed to grope your opponent like that.

Kid tossed another handful of popcorn in the air, catching the pieces in his mouth. "Pretty sure," he affirmed.

"Hmm." Hakuba frowned slightly. "Where is the Task Force?"

"Not here."

"Obviously." His scowl deepened. "This is an extremely weak attempt at re-enacting a heist."

Kid nodded his agreement, not saying anything as he munched on popcorn. Hakuba took a handful of popcorn for himself as the Not-Hakuba handcuffed the Mock-Kid on screen and rose triumphantly.

And then proceeded to choke on the popped kernels as the Mock-Kid apparently decided that speech was not going to free him from this predicament and put his mouth to another form of persuasion. Namely in Not-Hakuba's pants.

"Are you okay?" Kid asked, viewing him with concern as Hakuba took a hasty sip of too-hot tea and scalded his tongue.

"Fine, fine!" He waved off the silent offer of assistance as he got his breath back. "I am all right. I merely was not expecting that."

'That' loosely translated to One: the oral sex on screen, Two: the oral sex on the screen to someone who looked like him by someone who looked like the Kid, Three: the fact that he was now obviously watching porn with someone who looked like himself and the Kid with the Kaitou Kid and Four: the fact that the tea was still too hot.

"Ah." Kid nodded sagely, leaning back in his seat again, apparently impassive and indifferent to the images and sounds coming from the television. "Neither was I." He admitted, scooping up another handful of popcorn. "Have to admit, I was hoping for a bit more plot."

"Plot?"

Hakuba glanced several times between the telly and the thief. On screen, the Not-Hakuba orgasmed, the Mock-Kid taking advantage of the moment of inattention to remove the handcuffs from his wrists and put them on the Not-Hakuba, removing the inverness coat in the process.   What Plot?!

"Yeah. I haven't seen this before either." Kid nodded, flipping more pieces of popcorn in the air and catching it in his mouth. Mock-Kid proceeded to strip Not-Hakuba of all clothing other than the shirt, which was un-buttoned and left draping, leaving nothing to the imagination.

There was quite a bit there to not-imagine as well.

"This does not..." Hakuba’s question trailed off as he motioned to the moaning and the panting and the handcuffs on screen, uncertain if he was asking if this disturbed or if it aroused the other boy in any way.

Mock-Kid proceeding to pin Not-Hakuba against the wall and ride him did not help matters any.

Kid shrugged. "I figure it's good practice." He explained. "If I can keep a straight face through this, I can keep a persona together through just about anything. You're not really that flexible, are you?"

Hakuba paused, brain automatically diverted to analyse the question. If Kid could be that blasé about sitting around and watching pornography of themselves, so could he. "I do not believe so. That would be your area of expertise, I think."

The limber thief tilted his head to the side, obviously contemplating this, then nodded. "Yeah," he agreed without hubris.

"Although I would appreciate it if you did not take this opportunity to do something that would undoubtedly be excruciatingly painful for the majority of the population to attempt." There were limits to Hkauba's control after all. The mental images were bad enough, thank you.

A grin flashed across the thief's face as he let out a soft chuckle, taking another handful of popcorn. This time he didn't toss it into the air, but contented himself to slide each piece of popcorn past his lips and nibble on it a bit before allowing it to disappear into the depths of his mouth.

Hakuba wasn't sure if the thief was doing it on purpose or not, but that was distinctly unfair. One was not supposed to molest their popcorn in front of an audience.

Mock-Kid moved Not-Hakuba to the desk and they proceeded to bang there. "Are you strong enough to do that?" he asked, changing mental trains of thought.

"Not really." Kid shrugged. "Think they got the actors’ abilities mixed up."

"Lousy research."

"Yup. On the other hand, I can't see myself as a blond. No offense."

"None taken." Hakuba paused for a moment. "However, I do not believe he is a natural blond."

Kid blinked, tilting his head to the side in mild surprise as he examined the actor on the screen. Due to Mock-Kid's positioning and movement, it was hard to get a very good look at Not-Hakuba's nether-regions. "I believe you are correct," he finally agreed mildly.

Hakuba smirked to himself. Point for him. Ha. Revenge for the popcorn molestation.

The thief turned, giving him a look of pure devilment as he waggled his eyebrows in a parody of a leer. "Are you a natural blond?"

"A gentleman never tells." He hid his snicker by taking a sip of tea. It was cooler now, no longer scalding his mouth.

Kid laughed, sounding startled into amusement.

Mock-Kid and Not-Hakuba were now going at it like rabbits on the chair. It looked rather cramped, but it didn't appear to be slowing either of them down.

"Where did you find this anyway?" Hakuba questioned. He flinched slightly as the question was punctuated by a particularly loud moan from the screen.

Kid snickered, taking a sip of his own warm beverage. "You might be aware of the fact that I try to keep tabs on people offering merchandise in my likeness and name…?"

"I had heard a rumour about that," Hakuba nodded. "After the incident with the Giant's Star and Tofu Department store last Christmas."

"Precisely. You shouldn't make money off of being a thief. Or let someone else make money off of it for that matter. There's a few fan clubs that make stuff to sell in their circles, low or non-profit things that I usually ignore. Then word got out that a company, well..." A white gloved hand motioned towards the television, where Not-Hakuba and Mock-Kid and fallen out of the chair and were now doing the beast with two backs on the floor.

"...And you wanted my opinion on it," Hakuba finished.

Kid shrugged. "I sent them a note requesting that they not use my name or likeness, but you can see what good that did. Once I saw the packaging, I thought you might want to know about it as well."

"Especially since seeing that one of the 'participants' in this horrible charade is a caricature of myself," he finished, frowning. Anyone familiar with the phantom thief's escapades could and would identify the blond hair and Sherlock Holmes outfit as 'Hakuba Saguru.’

It was not a thought that was particularly comforting. Quite the opposite in fact.

"You have a course of action planned out?" Hakuba questioned.

Another shrug. "Create technical problems with the entire run of discs. But if you're at ease with this, I'm willing to let it slide."

It dawned on him that Kid in his own way was asking for permission to do something that could be considered as breaking the law. Now that he knew about it, he could make legal requests that they halt production on this, but that would make both the skin flick public and bring up the question where he learned about it, neither of which was a thought he relished. "I would rather you did not let it slide," he admitted slowly. To be honest, he would not have protested burning the entire building down.

Kid nodded, accepting the tact consent. "It would not be out of character for me to pass this information on to you anyway, if nothing else than to tease you like I do Nakamori-keibu," he offered neutrally.

A good cover for how Hakuba had come to learn of the movie's existence, in case of any fallout from the Kid's actions. Without implying of any sort of relationship other than the professional detached thief and detective one.

On-screen, Not-Hakuba and Mock-Kid were winding down, gasps and pants fading.

"Thank you," Hakuba said softly.

"You're welcome." The thief's voice was equally gentle.

They sat in silence, pointedly not looking at each other, the air a bit tense and uncomfortable as Mock-Kid and Not-Hakuba disengaged from each other on screen, Mock-Kid disappearing into the night and leaving the heist behind.

"You do realise that I am going to have a hard time looking directly at you for a while," Hakuba finally commented, hoping his voice was matter-of-factly.

Kid snickered, the sound breaking a great deal of the tightness in the air. "If it makes you feel any better, if this was a success, they had a few sequels in planning stages, explaining how the Kid always gets away. The first one involving a younger Nakamori and the Kid, and the second one involving a variation of the Task Force's 'Dog Pile on the Bandit.’"

Hakuba suddenly felt like he had just bit down into an under-ripe lemon. "Thank you." He grimaced as a bitter taste filled his mouth. "I believe that was sufficient enough to avoid the necessity of a cold shower tonight."

Kid laughed.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> foil packets and tea bagging... *thuds head on desk* If you don't get it, I'm not explaining. Shut Up.  'Nother Shut Up: Younger Nakamori and the Kid = Nakamori and Toichi. *waggles eyebrows* Bigger Shut Up: No Clothes Dog Pile on the Bandit = Gangbang on the Bandit. Shaddup. Shaddup. Shaddup.
> 
> Thanks to Ann for the name of the Star on the Christmas Heist.
> 
> Dedicated to Phoenix-neechan, for all of her comments while in Japan about Hakuba's ass. And the Porn Comments. And the Moaning and the Panting and the Handcuff comments. And the... you get the picture.  


	9. Crosswords and Lollipops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winding down from a heist

• • • 

Hakuba stepped into his bedroom to be greeted by the singularly delectable sight of the Kid sprawled out on his bed, a book of crossword puzzles in his hands and sucking on a lollipop.

The lollipop was pulled out of the thief's mouth with audible 'pop.’ "What's a four character word for 'leap'?"

Hakuba blinked. If that wasn't a welcome invitation to jump the Kid, he didn't know what was.

That thought was quickly reined in as he shut the door behind him, loosening the tie around his neck, revelling in the freedom to breathe. " _Tobikomu_." He commented dryly as he crossed the room, tugging off the tie as he did so. He wanted out of these restrictive clothing. "Make yourself at home."

He noted that the Kid had done so, taking the single light he'd left on in the bedroom as an invitation to come in and leaving his shoes underneath the window as if it were a door, ready to be slipped on at a moment's notice. That was a positive sign at least. Not that the thief ever left scuffmarks on the floor, his footsteps were too light for that.

Kid replaced the lollipop in his mouth and smiled cat-like at him, all fangs and smugness.

"You are entirely way too pleased," he retorted, hanging the tie up with the rest of them in the wardrobe and working on unbuttoning the cuffs. "I take it from your actions tonight that you were the one who mysteriously pinched my rear during the course of the heist?"

"I didn't pinch," Kid corrected lazily, the sweet stuffed in one cheek to speak. "I groped."

That was cause for a moment's hesitation.

"Wait..." He turned to stare at the still lounging thief, who was now doing something that could be considered illicit with his tongue to the lollipop. "You did that on PURPOSE?!"

"Yup." Kid flashed him another cat-like grin. "You squeak good too."

Hakuba returned to unbuttoning his shirt, partially turning his back on the not-quite snickering thief. "I do not squeak."

"Y'do too." Kid shifted, propping himself up on an elbow in what could have been easily considered a 'come hither' pose. "Like a girl."

There were times he cursed Mum for inheriting her pale skin. Especially when his skin felt warm and he just knew his face was turning red. "I do not," he growled, pulling the shirt out of his trousers without unbuckling the belt first.

A snicker answered him, the Kid deciding to take the high road as he rolled back onto his back again, lifting his right hand up to fill in another space in the crossword puzzle. " _Mane...ki...neko..._ "

Maneki-neko, a statue of a lucky cat, usually with a paw raised to beckon. Hakuba felt his lips twitch in amusement. Did this mean he had his very own lucky cat burglar?

...Who was currently stretched out luxuriously on his bed...

Bad thought.

He pulled the shirt off and debated if it should be hung up again or if it required to be washed. He'd only worn it for a few hours, between getting off from school and chasing the Kid, but those tended to be rather hectic hours. It didn't smell-

"You look good like that." Kid's voice was thoughtful sounding. Hakuba looked up to find the thief suddenly scrutinising the crossword puzzle with an almost nervous air. Kid cleared his throat, pointedly not looking at him as he continued. "Less starched, I mean. Casual."

"Um." He blinked, suddenly feeling conscious in his vest and trousers. "Thank you." He was unused to getting complements on his appearance. Too slight compared to his London schoolmates, too bulky compared to his Ekoda ones. Especially in contrast to the lithe kaitou.

One reason he favoured the lab coats and the inverness coat while working in public. Not only were they comfortable and provided pockets, but they were concealing as well.

They were both silent for a moment, not looking at each other. Then Kid scratched his head. "Two character word for wink?"

" _Mabataku._ " Hakuba filled in automatically. He hung up the shirt on the hanger it had been on previously and pulled out his favourite pullover to wear. "You're in a playful mood tonight. Some sort of occasion?"

"Quiet heist," Kid commented, his attention focused on filling in the word. "It's a nice change of pace not to have the screaming crowds. Not that hundreds of screaming adulating fan girls isn't fun, but it's nice to just get back to basics sometimes."

"Yes, Nakamori-keibu appeared to be enjoying himself as well," Hakuba commented, pulling the jumper over his head, then smoothing out his hair.

That was another one of the shifts after Blue Birthday. Kid had stopped playing for the police quite as much and started playing for the general public, the crowds his heists garnered growing exponentially. A lot of it depending on if the heist was a challenge one, someone challenging the kaitou to steal something of theirs tended to draw larger crowds due to publicity than if the Kid announced it himself to the police.

This last one had been one of the latter, the owner of the intended target finding the whole thing amusing as they carried a Shih Tzu named 'Kichou' in his arms. To Hakuba it appeared that the owner was carrying a very irritable rag mop, not a dog. A rag mop with fangs, as one officer discovered.

"Did you already return the heist?" he questioned, heading towards the bathroom.

A muted snicker answered that one neatly enough as he removed a contact and put it in its container, adding cleaning solution. "Put it around the rag mop's neck. With as much attention as that guy pays the dog, he should find it in a couple of hours." There was a slight pause. "And I checked it before I returned it, Mom."

He stuck his head out the bathroom door, the world in sort of a half-focused, half blur with one contact in and one out. "I am not your Mum."

Kid snerked at him, sitting up to roll forward so that he was now on his stomach, his feet towards the pillows. "Better than asking 'Who's yer Daddy' I suppose..."

Hakuba frowned slightly, never having understood that bit of American slang. He ducked back into the bathroom, removing the other contact and cleaning it as well.

"Hey, that mutt's name is in here." Kid grinned. " _Kichou_. My precioussssss..."

It was rather disturbing to hear Gollum from the Lord of the Ring's voice suddenly coming from the direction from his bed. It was easy to forget that Kid required no assistance in changing voices.

And to be rather honest, he could have lived without the mental image of Gollum sprawled out across his bed...

Shaking his head, he wandered back out into the bedroom, picking up his glasses and slipping them on. Kid was focused on the crossword puzzle, the lollipop slowly being sucked in and out of his mouth.

That was completely unfair.

He got a little of his own back, throwing himself on the bed so that he was pressed up against the Kid at the shoulder, elbow, hip and leg. "Keeping yourself entertained?" He questioned, pausing a moment to unpin the cape from under his limbs and toss it on top of him like a shared blanket.

Kid's response was to press something thin round and narrow against his lips. It wasn't the lollipop Kid had been sucking on, seeing as the stick was still held between the thief's teeth. And eyebrow came up in grinning invitation and with a mental shrug, Hakuba opened his mouth.

Sweetness. Not sugary sweet, but sweet with a slightly bitter herbal edge to it, one that bit back. It was a familiar flavour, the name escaping his mind as he sucked on the candy stick.

"Old fashion Horehound candy." Kid explained. "Found a candy store that had odd stuff from around the world, thought you might like it. It is from Britain, right?"

"Um, yes." He took the candy from Kid's hand, examining it. Dark brown, almost blue black, smelling almost of herbal cough medicine. Horehound was a component in several cough medicines, but it was good on its own. He stuck it back in his mouth. "Thank you."

Kid shrugged, dismissing it. "You share your tea often enough, it’s only fair to return the favour."

Hakuba paused, the candy stick pressed between his lips as several stray thoughts connected in his head. He began to snicker, feeling better than he had in a while about this arrangement with the thief.

"Huh?" Kid made a confused sound.

"Gropes, compliments, candy..." He grinned, propping his head up on one hand. "So you are courting me tonight?"

He had thought it would be impossible to get the Kid to blush. He was wrong. Kid gave him a surly look, which was just amusing with the pink high in his cheeks, then tapped Hakuba on the head with the pencil he was using to fill in the crossword.

 _*PON!*_ A light weight settled itself in his hair. Kid smiled, the amused cat expression returning.

It was a flower. He knew it was a flower. He reached up and pulled it off his head, looking at it anyway.

A white rose. Meanings varied from 'worthiness' to 'purity' to 'secrecy.’ He smiled. "Clever." Count on Kid to speak in actions and not words.

"Thank you." Kid looked pleased, but not overly so.

Hakuba smiled back, leaning over to look at the crossword puzzle that Kid had been working on all evening. He paused, blinking. "Kid... this crossword puzzle is in English..."

"Yup."

"... but you're filling in the answers in Japanese..."

"Yup."

He attempted to puzzle this one out and came up blank. Although in retrospect, this probably meant that the one officer who had been wandering around with a crossword puzzle book during the heist had been the Kid.

"I got bored," Kid explained matter-of-factly as he pulled the lollipop out of his mouth. "Wanna do something else?"

Hakuba glanced down at the lollipop the Kid was licking, then up at the thief's face, feeling a smirk stretch across his own face in amusement.

"Have you ever wanted to learn how to French kiss?"

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Mel RedCap who jumped us in chat and demanded more snogging. Didn't -quite- work out that way. ^^;; Sorry.
> 
> Translations for the Japanese words are included in the text. Many thanks to Mati for answering our random 'Hey, name the first word off the top of your head!!' comments in chat.
> 
> [More on Mane Ki Neko / Lucky Cat](http://www.akanezumiya.com/publications/mag1.htm)
> 
> **Dogmatix says:**  
>  Kaito: "Hey, Hakuba, what's a four letter word for 'intercourse'?" *tries to look innocent*


	10. Blurring the Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hakuba visits Kuroba for a change

• • • 

Hakuba looked up at the large two-story building with curiosity. It triggered familiarity in the back of his head for some reason, but he couldn't connect why it appeared familiar when he was positive that he had never been here before.

Which just added to the general confusion today, really, because he wasn't quite sure why he was here anyway. Other than the fact that Aoko had been very insistent about his accompanying her after school, once she had established the fact that he had no plans for after school.

An insistent Aoko was a highly disturbing thing to be around. Terrifying even. He had gone without much complaint, much to his chagrin.

By the way Aoko went for the key in the loose brick instead of pulling it from her key ring, this obviously was not her house. Which in all honesty was confusing but a minor relief. He couldn't think of any reason for her to invite him, alone, into her house. Well, any good logical reason.

"C'mon." Aoko slipped her shoes off at the door and put on the house scuffs with an air of familiarity. Not her house then, but one she visited on a frequent basis. Still puzzled, he did the same and followed her down the hallways and up the stairs to the second floor. The house was clean, he noted absently, with a definite woman's touch to the décor.

She slowed and paused as she reached the end of the hallway, motioning for silence as she reached for a doorknob and carefully eased the door open, pausing when it was about half way open.

A sound like a large annoyed cat came from inside the room. A very large cat.

"That's rude!" Aoko's posture straightened as she opened the door and stormed in with her usual fire. "I do not sound like a herd of elephants marching up the stairs!"

A second scratching sound, followed by a snickering yowl.

"Elephants are not quieter!"

"Keh."

Aoko's response as she pulled books out of her bag and set them on the bed was unintelligible and most likely something she had picked up from her father. Hakuba didn't dwell on it too deeply.

Instead, he focused on the room's other occupant, who was sitting up and moving sluggishly like a zombie from a cheap horror flick.

Looking much like a zombie from a cheap horror flick as well. Random red patterns ran across pale skin on the verge of grey-green, dark smudges under deep-sunk eyes and sweat-slicked hair that limply spiked in every direction. The large worn off-white tee-shirt stretched out at the collar revealing shadowed collarbones, loose sleeves trailing into thin but sinewy arms and hands that usually flowed like liquid mercury but instead moved like limp worn out rags.

Hakuba could honestly say that he'd never seen Kuroba look so terrible.

He was confident in his relationship with the Kaitou Kid, such as it was. He enjoyed time spent with the thief, be it in the form of intellectual challenges, word games or activities of a more carnal nature.

His relationship with the Kid's other side however... 'Nonexistent' came to mind. He saw Kuroba practically every day in the classroom, but they rarely interacted other than various taunts, usually about intelligence, the lack thereof or the Kaitou Kid. It was... grating, that's what it was.

As far as he could figure, the darker haired boy had split his personality, or mind, into two separate beings. There was Kuroba and then there was the Kid. Except for when they crossed over, one personality bleeding slightly into the other. Sometimes when the Kid was winding down from a heist, Hakuba would get flashes of how Kuroba acted when he was relaxed. However, pushing Kuroba brought a different set of reactions than the Kid's. Much more violent for one thing.

But there was still absolutely no question in his mind that Kuroba was the Kid and Kid was Kuroba.

And Hakuba didn't just want the Kid. He wanted the person behind the Kid as well, the complete person.

Sometimes he wondered if he was greedy.

Sometimes he wondered what the hell he was doing.

Kuroba spotted him, pausing in mid-taunt, his mouth partly open as he squeaked an inquiry.

Hakuba squashed the first thing that came to mind, mainly being a taunt that he had a valid excuse to be out of class, which he bit back. For one thing, he knew why Kuroba was often out of class. And for another thing, he was not going to get into a verbal sparring match with someone who was ill and could only squeak in response. It was un-chivalrous and beneath his dignity.

"Aoko-kun dragged me along," he said simply.

Enlightenment dawned on Kuroba's face and he nodded, an expression clearly stating that he'd been there before and understood it well.

"Yeah, well, we have tests coming up," Aoko grumbled. "So Kaito can't miss anymore schoolwork or his scores are really going to suffer. And since I don't know the material nearly well enough to explain it and Hakuba's got the highest grades in class..." She trailed off hopefully.

"I was brought along to act as a tutor," Hakuba deduced.

Aoko gave him large blue hopeful puppy-dog eyes.

He caved. He knew he caved. That did not mean he had to show that he caved. Externally at least. "For future reference, I would prefer to be asked in advance before my services are offered," he said in as lofty of a manner as possible.

Aoko and Kuroba exchanged looks that clearly read 'softie.’ He grumbled and pretended to ignore them. He had a reputation to maintain. 'Stick up the arse' and all that rot as Kuroba had so blithely put it several times.

He changed the topic. "I am assuming whatever ailment you are currently suffering from, it is not contagious?"

Both Aoko and Kuroba shook their heads. Kuroba squeaked again, Aoko translated. "Allergies."

"Allergies?" With the amount of roses and various flowers that Kuroba pulled out of his clothing on a regular basis?

Kuroba shot a dirty glare in Aoko's direction, firmly pointing where the blame rested. "I told you I was sorry!" she shot back. "How many times do I need to say it?!"

The resulting grumble was untranslatable as well, although Aoko picked up the pillow and whacked him for it. "-and no, I don't care if you're the sick, injured one here!" she snapped.

Oh... kay... "Pardon?"

Another pointed look in Aoko's direction, followed by a gusty sigh on her part. "You know how Kaito freaks out around fish?" she asked, putting the pillow she'd been hitting him with behind his back to help him sit up against the headboard. Kuroba gave her a nasty look for uttering the 'F-word' in front of him even as he passively assisted her shifting the pillows around.

"Yes. Quite emphatically in fact."

"Yeah, well." She shifted nervously. "Turns out he's allergic to them. Violently. Deadly too. I didn't know, and he didn't know I'd put some in this recipe I was trying. A couple of bites and... "

Kuroba made an exaggerated choking/up-chucking motion. With the pasty complexion and the hideous red hives, it looked morbidly realistic.

"I see..." There really didn't seem to be much he could comment about that, so he shrugged and lifted up his bookbag. "In that case, if Kuroba-kun has recovered enough to work on some homework, shall we proceed?"

"Keh," Kuroba grumped, but folded his legs towards himself so they had room to join him on the bed. It was a tight squeeze, Aoko partly leaning against Kuroba as the books were scattered around the middle.

Tutoring Aoko and Kuroba was not as terrible an experience as he had originally feared. Aoko was far from imbecilic and Kuroba required little to no assistance. What difficulties he did have were mostly points of clarification, small notes jotted down on the side. Although Hakuba did note that Kuroba was pacing himself to Aoko's slower speed.

They made it through history, science and language at a fairly decent rate before Aoko decided a break was called for and went downstairs to avail herself of the Kurobas' kitchen.

Leaving him with a silent Kuroba.

Kuroba looked at him.

He looked at Kuroba.

Kuroba did not look entirely comfortable with the situation either. Of course, it could have merely been the fact his hives were itching.

But it was also painfully similar to the times that he and the Kid would sprawl out on his bed with heist notes between them. The difference between there and here being that he could actually reach out and touch the Kid. That was friendly and warm and companionable.

This was not. This was awkward, prickly and anything other than comfortable.

This sucked. Big time.

"You look like hell," he said conversationally.

Kuroba grunted in agreement.

That was the extent of their conversation until Aoko came back. Tea was served, along with some soft chocolate-covered biscuits that made Kuroba light up. They were a bit sweet for his taste, but Hakuba had long since resigned himself to the fact he was not made to handle as much sugar as Kid-Kuroba could.

Kuroba-Kid?

... It was so much easier with just the Kid...

Aoko suggested math homework next, which he most gratefully agreed to. The need for conversation faded as they worked on the problems.

At least until he got to the answer of one of the problems and found himself smirking.

"-Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three." Hakuba muttered quietly to himself "Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe-" He trailed off as he realised that both Kuroba and Aoko were looking at him oddly.

He cleared his throat, fighting the urge to shift nervously. "Yes?"

"'Holy Hand Grenade'-?" Aoko echoed, clearly puzzled, her expression plainly asking if he'd lost his mind.

"It's a quote from a movie," he explained. "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail."

"Never heard of it." Behind her, Kuroba seconded this opinion.

Hakuba looked at them in surprise. "You have never seen 'Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail'? The Killer Bunny, Flight Velocity of an Unladen Sparrow, Castle Anthrax, Huge Tracts of Land, The Black Knight and all that?"

Kuroba shook his head as Aoko gave him a disbelieving look. "Noo..."

"You poor, deprived people." He sighed regretfully. "We must remedy this. I have a copy at my house that you shall have to come over and watch once everyone is healthy again."

Aoko and Kuroba exchanged looks, a hesitant grin growing on her face and an amused look on his face. "Okay," Aoko agreed for both of them. "It's a deal."

He nodded in return, then ducked his head under the pretence of working on homework once more to hide the pleased smile on his face. It faded slightly as he realised that he had just invited them over to his house. To watch a movie no less.

He had just invited someone who was the -Kaitou Kid- to come over and watch -Monty Python-.

Oh, dear...

He was not going to think about the trouble that was going to cause, he was not going to think about what Kid could come up with from watching Monty Python, he was not going to...

Math.

Math good.

He might as well attempt to chop down the tallest tree in the forest with a herring...

The rest of the time passed blessedly fast, only part of his mind focused on the schoolwork in front of him, the rest occupied with exploding rabbits, catapulting cows, coconuts, social repression, and people in black who refused to die and threatened to gnaw the ankles off the Kid. Then Aoko was collecting dishes and admonishing Kuroba to get more sleep, drink plenty of fluids, don't scratch too much – at which Kuroba had turned a fun shade of pink – and that she'd see him tomorrow.

Hakuba was not sure if he was included in that arrangement, so he nodded once in a silent farewell and turned to leave.

"'ey," Kuroba squeaked, catching his attention.

Hakuba paused, raising an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"How d'ya keep a blond in suspense fer twenty-four hours?" It was obviously painful to get the words out, but the wicked grin on Kuroba's face belied the discomfort.

"I am not precisely sure..." Hakuba slowly admitted, sensing a trap. "How?"

"Tell ya t'morrow." Kuroba smiled and waved farewell.

"Very well." Fair enough, he could wait a day for the answer to the question. And it meant that either Kuroba would be school, or he'd be welcome back to the Kuroba residence. "I shall inquire then," he agreed, turning and walking out the door.

He was several steps down the hall before it hit him. "HEY!"

-fin-


	11. Cursing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for potty mouth

• • • 

Shades of Grey: Cursing  
by Icka! M. Chif

• • • 

"Tu m'emmerdes." _You're pissing me off_ , Hakuba muttered under his breath in French. Kuroba, sitting diagonally one seat up on his left, raised an eyebrow and smirked. He didn't think Kuroba could understand the language but sometimes it was hard to tell.

"Tva-ya Mama sa-seet kor-rov-on-ni-ye hoy-ee," Kuroba spat softly. Hakuba blinked. Russian? Where the heck had Kuroba picked up Russian? Granted, it was close to northern Japan, so maybe a friend of his father's? Kuroba Toichi had travelled around the world...

More importantly, what had he said? He didn't know much Russian, just a handful of words and some insults. Something about his mother and a cow... Whatever it was, it was rude.

"Das geht dich einen feuchten Scheissdreck an." _That concerns you like wet dung._ Sometimes German was a much more satisfying language, all hard sounds.

"Pashol v'chorte." That Russian phrase he knew. _Go to hell_.

Hakuba smiled politely as he switched back to French. "Manges la merde." _Eat shit._

Kuroba stretched, leaning backwards slightly. "Kooshi govno ee oomree," he commented casually.

_Eat shit and die._

Hakuba was sensing a variation on a theme.

He debated over some Italian phrases, but decided against it. There was just something lacking without the hand gestures. Hakuba switched back to Deutsch.

"Scheißkopf." _Shit head_. Might as well continue the theme.

"Per-ee-staan haameetca," Kuroba drawled back, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Okay, that one he didn't know. But then it didn't really matter at this point. This was just kind of fun.

"Va te faire foutre." _Stuff it._

"Tebya ne ebut, ti ne podmakhivai." Yet another one he didn't know.

"Mach es dir selber." _Go have intercourse with yourself._

The bell rang, cutting off Kuroba's response. Aoko turned, looking at the both of them. "What was that about?" She demanded. Belatedly, Hakuba realised that they had been disrupting the students around them in English class. Not that he needed help with that particular language, but still...

"Aw." Kuroba smiled disarmingly at them. "Hakuba-kun says the sweetest things."

Aoko smacked her seatmate over the head with a book in response.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's prolly a good thing that Aoko didn't understand what they were talking about or they'd both get their mouths washed out with soap.
> 
> Russian:  
> "Tva-ya Mama sa-seet kor-rov-on-ni-ye hoy-ee." = Your mother sucks cow dicks.  
> "Per-ee-staan haameetca." = stop bitching  
> "Tebya ne ebut, ti ne podmakhivai" = mind your own fucking business (Lit.: You're not being fucked, so don't wiggle your ass)


	12. Protective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not just Hakuba who is protective of the Kid.

• • • 

It had been busy night the night before and Hakuba wasn't surprised to find Kuroba having a kip underneath his favourite tree during the lunch break. The Kid heist hadn't been a very difficult one, the thief relying more on his speed and agility to successfully get in and out of the police's surveillance than disguises this time.

What had surprised him had been the phone call later, when he got home. Kid had actually called him to regretfully inquire if it was possible for him to drop by another night, instead of meeting him as was their usual wont. The thief had offered no explanations, a rushed urgency to the voice informing Hakuba that this probably was not a good time for lengthy conversations. Not mention that a phone call was something with a lot less deniability than his meeting the phantom thief in his house.

Phone taps were not terribly difficult. Shadowing the Kid was extremely.

Kuroba had looked slightly knackered throughout the morning, but his childhood friend and seatmate, Aoko, looked practically zomibifed. It was not hard to deduce that something had happened in the Nakamori household that Kuroba had been somehow involved in.

Aoko was currently curled up against Kuroba, her head tucked under his chin, nestled against his shoulder. One of Kuroba's arms wrapped around her back in a loose embrace. They looked comfortable like that, at ease with each other in such a way that made his stomach twist with something that felt suspiciously like jealousy.

There had been no promises of fidelity between himself and the Kaitou Kid. And Kuroba, Kid, had once admitted there was a girl whom he was fond of. It did not take the deductive abilities of a genius to deduct who that might be.

Kuroba's head raised partly as tired violet eyes peered at him through thick lashes. "Hey."

"Hullo yourself." He motioned to the sleeping girl. "Is everything all right?"

The unladen shoulder shifted in an approximation of a shrug. "Nakamori-keibu got on the wrong side of a rather enthusiastic Task Force dog pile last night." Kuroba explained softly. "Got knocked unconscious with a rather nasty bump on his head. We spent part of the night in the hospital and Aoko didn't get much rest when we got back."

"I am sorry," Hakuba apologised. As much as he might have butted heads with the elder Nakamori, he did not wish the cranky inspector any ill will. He was also puzzled; Nakamori-keibu had been his usual hyperactive and loud self when he had departed for home last night.

Kuroba shook his head. "Nobody's fault, just a case of bad timing. Happened at the headquarters too, so I'm sure you'll hear all about it when you go in."

Most likely, in great detail and with a great many false embellishments. Joy.

"May I join you?" he inquired.

Kuroba paused for a moment, then yawned. "Knock yourself out," was the final pronouncement.

"Thank you."

He sat down next to Kuroba, his back against the tree trunk as well, close enough that their shoulders could almost brush. Kuroba watched Hakuba unpack his lunch before tilting his head back against the tree and closing his eyes once more. Aoko slept through their entire exchange, undisturbed by his presence. Hakuba smiled slightly, a faint feeling of relief uncoiling around his heart. Good.

All pettiness aside about how close the wild-haired girl was to Kuroba, he was genuinely fond of her as well. And she was good for Kuroba; made the other boy smile when he needed it.

He finished his lunch quickly, keeping one eye on the slumbering couple beside him and the other out for people who might disturb them. It felt natural to do so, this comfortable inclination to watch over the people he cared about.

Maybe he should put it on a business card or something. Hakuba Saguru – Guard Dog for Kaitou and their Associates.

A shadow loomed in front of him and he was surprised to see Koizumi leaning over him suddenly. He hadn't seen her coming, hadn't seen her at all in fact. Just *poof!* instant girl.

-Scratch the Guard Dog comment....

"You and Kuroba-kun have gotten quite close as of late." The words were spoken with a familiar purr, but with an unfamiliar dangerous hiss underlying it. Kuroba chose that moment to shift in his sleep, his head resting against Hakuba's shoulder with a soft snore. Thanks, Kuroba, he thought darkly. Just prove it, won't you?

"I suppose." He answered the red-haired girl neutrally. He certainly was spending more time with Kuroba then he had been before, and it was all Aoko's doing. He still wasn't quite sure why Aoko seemed to take a vicarious glee in finding various excuses to toss the two of them together, but he was not going to argue with her either. Especially since it was where his own interest lay anyway.

Koizumi smiled at him, like she was hiding a butcher knife behind her back that she didn't want him to know about. "If you're merely playing with him to hurt him, I will make sure you live to regret it."

Hakuba blinked. Had she just-?

Her grin turned a little bit sharper. Upside-down piranha would have friendlier smiles.

She had. Koizumi had just threatened him over Kuroba.

"Do we have an understanding?" she questioned, leaning a little further down, far enough so that if he were so inclined, he could look down her shirt. He carefully kept his eyes on her face. It was safer for many reasons.

"Perfectly," he agreed.

"Good." She straightened, eyes remaining pinned on him, even as a bit of embarrassment slipped into her expression, as if uncertain about her display of concern.

Hakuba paused, realised that he was frowning as pieces tumbled and clicked in the back of his mind. Koizumi gave him the creeps for no particular reason he could discern. Nothing massive, just one of those 'hairs raise on the back of your neck in the presence of a predator' type thing. Which was rather odd, considering it was usually the other boys in the class that were chasing her.

Except for Kuroba.

Who smiled at her cheerfully, but kept his distance.

And she did the same. But she watched him from afar, with eyes too old for their age.

"You are rather protective of him," he commented, trying to make it not sound like an accusation and not certain if he succeeded. She frowned in response, the icy facade returning once more. He watched her patiently and she eventually sighed, looking very tired.

"I made a mistake," she admitted softly. "Several, actually. And I hurt Kuroba-kun. But he still helped me when I needed it. So I won't allow anyone else to hurt him again."

"Then we are in accord." He nodded solemnly. She stared at him, crimson eyes boring into his, and he remembered stories from his travels in Europe of people being able to cast spells by glancing at you. _Malocchio, Boser Blick, Mauvais Veil_ or simply known as 'The Evil Eye.’

He resisted against making a warding gesture. He wasn't superstitious after all.

Koizumi finally nodded, evidently pleased by what she found. He found himself releasing a small breath he hadn't known he was holding.

Kuroba snuffled in his sleep. Hakuba took that as a hint.

"Would you care to join us?" he inquired, offering her a hand in invitation.

Koizumi did have a surplus of suitors; she must have pulled an amazing disappearing act to find the time to confront him by herself. She paused for a minute, suspicion clear in her eyes, before gracefully accepting his hand and allowing him to assist her as she sank into the grass beside him. "A break sounds lovely," she said loftily.

He smiled in return. Sure, Koizumi, sure. She shifted around in the grass before resting her head against the tree trunk and closing her eyes. Her breathing dropped down and steadied shortly afterwards, her head dipping slighting in his direction as she relaxed.

Things fell back into the peaceful lull it had been before Koizumi's arrival. He got several pages in his book read and several students were scared away by the might of his glare. For which he was quietly smug about.

He didn't break the comfortable stillness until a few minutes before the bell according to his internal clock. "You heard everything, did you not?" he said under his breath, casually flipping a page.

The tousled head leaning on his shoulder slid downwards slightly, as if hiding a grin. "Yup."

"I do hate you." Blasted git had probably managed to set this whole thing up.

"Mutual," Kuroba agreed, shifting his head back up, cheekbones nuzzling him slightly, like a lazy cat.

"Just so long as we are clear."

"Crystal."

"Excellent."

Kuroba let out a satisfied purr, breath evening out again.

Hakuba sighed and returned his attention back to his book.

They still had a few more minutes of closeness before they had to move after all.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> German: Boser Blick  
> Italian: malocchio  
> French: mauvais veil  
> Also known as Matiasma, malocchio, mal de ojo in Greek, Italian and Spanish, respectively.
> 
> Some interesting information about the [Evil Eye](https://web.archive.org/web/20040412024141/http://forteantimes.com/articles/160_evileye.shtml) here.


	13. A Simple Conversation

• • •

"Hakuba-kun! Hakuba-kun!" Aoko's friendly cry alerted Hakuba to her presence, allowing him to turn and stop before he was bowled over by her cheerful arrival. She grinned at him, looping her arm through his and tugged him along in the direction he had been going before her welcome interruption. "Come with me, Hakuba-kun!" she demanded, grinning cheerfully.

"And might I inquire where we are going?" he asked, only somewhat reluctantly allowing himself to be pulled along. He was starting to get used to this, Nakamori-keibu's daughter suddenly appearing and dragging him off on some minor adventure or errand. It was something that hadn't happened to him often in the past and he was finding the experiences enlightening as well as entertaining.

"The Crepe Shop." Aoko flashed him a 500-yen coin with a pleased air. "Kaito's getting drinks, we're getting the crepes and meeting him by the bridge for a snack before heading home. Unless you've got other plans…?" she ended with a slightly pleading expression.

"Nothing urgent," he assured her, grateful for the opportunity to duck out, even if it was just manners on her part. There had been a few times he'd had to say no, but had been privately pleased by the fact that there was always another offer later.

Even if he was still completely baffled as to why she did so in the first place.

The Crepe Shop wasn't far from the campus. In fact, it often seemed like one couldn't travel very far without running in to a crepe shop every few kilometres. Although there was a higher probability of finding one near where either tourists or teenagers were prone to hang out.

Not that he was going to argue. The combination of fillings that went into the large thin pancake seemed endless. Anything and everything from pizza fillings to tuna and cream cheese to fruit, spices and whipped cream. And it was interesting to watch the people make the crepe on the round griddle in front of them, swirling and smoothing the batter with the efficient grace of an artist.

The fact that it was fairly cheap, usually between 290 to 480 yen, was just an added bonus.

They talked about today's lessons as they walked, the conversation easy and friendly. Aoko was not the intellectual that some others were, but that did not make her any less interesting to talk with. Not to mention that she was also up to date on the latest police gossip. Pardon, 'Personnel Interaction Information.’ Officers of the law did not gossip after all.

The line was still short when they got to the shop and he allowed her to place her order first while he looked at the menu. "Nothing healthy," she teased him as she placed her order, a kiwi and strawberries with cream crepe and a chocolate and whipped cream crepe, most likely for Kuroba knowing his tastes. It was a small amusement, Kuroba getting the drinks while Aoko fetching the crepes. Chocolate wasn't the most masculine of tastes.

With a grand playful gesture, Aoko bowed, motioning him forward. He shook his head, amused by the action. "Blueberries and cream, please," he requested.

The middle-aged man behind the counter gave him a confused expression. A glance at Aoko showed her expression mirroring the man's. "Could you repeat that?" the clerk requested.

Hakuba sighed. "Buruuberii ando kuriimu," he repeated, in English with a heavy Japanese accent. Enlightenment dawned on the other man’s face as he scribbled down the order. Hakuba remained silent as he paid the man and took his place next to Aoko, waiting for their orders to be filled.

It seemed like he sometimes spoke two kinds of English, British-English and Japanese-English, in addition to Japanese and the German, French and smattering of a few other languages he had learned at London Bridge School. Despite the similarities, speak the wrong kind of English in one country or the other and it was incomprehensible for the person you were trying to have a conversation with.

Aoko seemed to pick up on his mood and was silent as the man filled the thin crepes in their fillings of choice, folded it quickly and neatly in half, then half again and slipped the warm snack into paper triangles for easier holding. The silence continued as he took her bag so that she could carry both her and Kuroba's crepes, took his own and wandered back down the street, Hakuba a half-step behind her.

Brooding wasn't going to help. He changed trains of thought. "I have been wondering, Aoko-kun."

She turned slightly and smiled at him. "Yeah?"

"Why do you keep inviting me to join you and Kuroba?" He flinched slightly as he belatedly realised just how badly that had come out. "I am not complaining! I just... it confuses me." It was one of his more irksome flaws, he was terrible at understanding what motivated people.

Aoko smiled enigmatically, looking quietly pleased. "Mind if I ask you a question in return?"

"Um." He blinked "No?"

"Why did you stop hounding Kaito about if he is the Kid?" This was said in complete innocence and determination. Obviously something that had been bothering the wild-haired girl for a while.

He rubbed the back of his neck with the hand holding their packs and chuckled ruefully. "London, actually."

"London?" She tilted her head inquisitively.

"It was pointed out that it is rather rude to pry into someone's life like that." Much to his embarrassment. Mum had rebuked him for being boorish and intrusive. In retrospect, many of his actions did appear childish and lacking in manners and tact. And as much as he hated to admit it, the rebuke had been deserved. "And if he is the Kid, attempting to shove the fact into his face is the last way to get him to admit it, is it not?"

Rubbing in the fact that he knew Kuroba was the Kid was also insulting, to say the least. Not to mention lousy tactical strategy as well. What was it going to accomplish? Annoy Kuroba to the point of admitting he was the Kid just to get away from him? Unlikely.

Stepping back to gather evidence had seemed prudent after his previous behaviour. He had still followed the Kid with the fervour he'd had previously, but stopped chasing Kuroba at school. The snide muttered comments back and forth during class were more interesting than the frosty glares and silences he'd been greeted with previously anyway.

But even that had changed since the night in the cabin almost half a year ago. There had been a few strange looks from Kuroba the following week after they had returned, then those had faded along with some of the coldness. A distance had remained, but even that was fading as Aoko brought them into each other's presence increasingly often and forcing them to interact.

Leading to the current confusion.

She made a thoughtful sound, eyebrows coming down in a familiar stormy expression. "So you still think he's the Kid?" There was just enough of a hint of malice to remind him that he was not quite as agile as Kuroba in dodging flying Aoko attacks.

"I think the possibility remains," he said diplomatically. "When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"-Sherlock Holmes." She grinned, the malice gone. "You otaku."

He chuckled at the insult, taking it as the jest it was meant. "Any other questions?"

"Your turn." Her grin turned slightly wistful, then her jaw came forward in a stubborn expression. "You like Kaito, right?"

"Uh..." It took a second of flailing brain cells to realise that she hadn't meant it in THAT way. At least he didn't think so. "I admire his intelligence and skills, yes..." Neutral ground was good. Thinking about the thief's skills was bad. Especially late night in the light of the fireplace skills with those light hands, laughing mouth and quick intellect...

"Good." The stubborn look was still there. "So you don't mind being Kaito's friend then?"

"Friend?" Hakuba nearly stumbled. He and Kuroba were getting along better than before, but friends? He wasn't so sure about that. Recovering quickly, he looked at Aoko seriously for a moment. There was a little bit of sadness in her eyes and a lot of bull-minded stubbornness. "Aoko-kun, what is this about?"

She sighed, idly inspecting her crepe. "It's like this... Kaito's popular, right? ‘Cause he's funny. But he's also really smart and lonely, because he is smarter than most people."

"He has you," he reminded her. It was rare to see one without the other, like they were joined at the elbow. Both were insanely protective of each other.

"It's not the same." Aoko shook her head. "We've been friends for ages. It used to be that we didn't have any secrets between each other... Then he started to change, before you transferred in. First it was little things, but... it's like he's distancing himself. From everyone, including me. I don't like it, he needs people."

"Is that why you have been inviting me along recently?" he asked, concerned. How long had Aoko been suffering about this?

She nodded. "You're smart too, you can keep up with him. And he needs that, someone who can challenge him."

"Kuroba is definitely a challenge," he agreed. "But... if I am not overstepping my bounds... I thought the two of you..."

A giggling stream of laughter erupted from her, like a silver song. The few people around them cast them confused looks. He flinched, feeling his face turn pink in embarrassment. She shook her head again, the crepes in her hands wobbling slightly as she held them none too steadily as she attempted to catch her breath. "We're not... we're not, oh my..." She laughed nervously, her own cheeks blushing pink.

He waited for the laughter to die down, attempting desperately figure out what exactly had set that off. "We're not dating," she finally got out, a grin stretching across her face, tears beading up in the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard. "For a while, it looked we would... then it changed... And like I said, we've been friends for AGES. It'd be like dating my brother. And we're so much alike."

"You are much sweeter than he is," he assured her. She blushed again at the complement. "But to answer your question, no, I do not mind being Kuroba's friend."

However, the question remained if Kuroba felt the same.

"Oi!!!" A cry from under them caught their attention. With a start, Hakuba realised that they were on the bridge, Kuroba waving at them from the grassy hill below. "What took you so long?!"

"Just because some of us aren't a speed deamon!" Aoko yelled back, picking up the pace to join him. Hakuba followed.

"Well if you'd quit stopping to flirt..." Kuroba taunted, a teasing smirk on his face.

"We are not flirting," Hakuba informed him primly. "That is your department, Kuroba-kun. For that matter, neither do we flip skirts."

"Ya don't flip in skirts you said?"

"Kaito!" Aoko plopped down next to him, a fierce scowl on her face. "Honestly, why do we put up with you?"

He shot her large violet puppy eyes. "Because you love me."

She bopped him on the head with the hand holding his crepe in response. Kuroba laughed and took the chocolate filled confection from her, eyes sparkling happily. "See? You do love me."

Aoko growled. Hakuba sat down next to her, amused by their antics. "I am afraid the delay is my fault," he apologised, diverting their attention to the previous topic before the mop came out.

"S'okay." Kuroba smirked. "Should anything happen, I trust you to defend her honour."

"Thank you," he said sincerely, blinking at the complement. Aoko glared at him for the implied comment that she couldn't take care of herself.

Kuroba shrugged casually in response, reaching beside him and picking up a bottle, flipping it to Aoko. "Calpis for you-"

"Thanks!" She caught it, debating for a second between setting down her oozing crepe or holding it in her mouth to have a hand free to open the bottle. After a quick glance around, efficiency won over manners and the bottle was opened.

Kuroba picked up a can from beside him and tossed it to Hakuba. "Royal Milk Tea okay?"

"It is fine, thank you." He caught the blue-rimmed can in the unoccupied hand. It was still cold from the vending machine. "How much do I owe you?"

Kuroba waved it off, picking up his own can of UCC milk coffee. "You can get it next time."

Aoko gave him a triumphant expression as she chewed on her snack.

So perhaps Kuroba did not mind being friends after all.

"All right."

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original idea for the fic was just Hakuba and Aoko talking, then the crepes made it in. o_0 Sorry.
> 
> • Japanese crepes seem to be a staple when we go to Japan. The enormity of the variety of toppings seems limitless. Although sometimes 'Cream' means 'Cream cheese' and sometimes it means 'Whipped Cream'. Never know. ^^;; I did my best to describe what them in the fic.   
> The 'Blueberry' versus 'Buruuberii' happened to me once in Kamakura. #^^#  
> Side note, found Crepe Stores twice in the US, in San Francisco's Little Tokyo and in Las Vegas' Chinatown.
> 
> • Calpis, often pronounced 'Cow-piss'. Has the white milky colouring of semen and tastes slightly citrusy. Not kidding. Pervertity aside, one of my favourite Japanese drinks, especially when it's hot outside. (is good for replacing lost nutrients when you sweat) Can be found just about anywhere.
> 
> • Royal Milk Tea is another commonly found drink. Tea heavy on the milk and sugar. Can be bought freshly made at coffee shops or out of vending machines either chilled or warm. There's a couple of brands including 'Rose' and 'Duke'. Rose tends to be a bit milder and sweeter, tastes watered down to me. I prefer the Duke brand, which is what Hakuba got, with the blue on the can. Much richer tasting.
> 
> • UCC Coffee is easy to spot with its stripped can. Light brown at the top, white in the middle and red-orange at the bottom. On the sweet side as well, but not overly so. Strangely cheaper in the Los Angeles Little Tokyo (79cents) than in Japan (110-150yen). Another fairly common drink.


	14. Popping the Cherry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cherry stem tying contest.

• • • 

"Ooo." Hakuba looked up from his lunch to see a grinning Kuroba leaning over him. The sun filtered from the tree branches above them, giving the magician-thief a speckled halo, which was somehow oddly symbolic. "Cherries."

"Yes. Would you-" before he could blink, Kuroba was sitting cross-legged in front of him, bento in lap and a cherry in his mouth "-care for a cherry?"

Kuroba spat something into his hand, extending it to show the cherry stem loosely tied into a knot. "Love one," Kuroba beamed.

One of Hakuba's eyebrows rose in faint annoyance. Trust Kuroba to be agile with his mouth.

...of course, he did know that from personal experience too....

Well, no. He had kissed the Kid. He had yet to kiss Kuroba. Even though technically they were the same person, they did act differently...

He was getting off track.

Hakuba chose a cherry out of the small container containing the tiny red fruits and popped it into his mouth. Separating the sweet fruit from the stem, he chewed that and swallowed it first, pit and all, before twisting the stem around in his mouth and tying it in a knot. He opened his mouth, plucking it off the tip of his tongue, holding it up for Kuroba's inspection. It may have taken him a little bit longer than Kuroba to tie, but it was a tighter knot.

One of Kuroba's eyebrows and half of his mouth lifted up in what could only be constituted as a challenging smirk.

Hakuba's eyebrows came down as he answered it with a smirk of his own. Bring it on.

Kuroba smiled wolfishly back, his violet eyes sparkling as he perused the selection. Nimble fingers plucked a fruit from the box and placed it on Kuroba's lips before it was sucked into the depths of Kuroba's mouth.

So not fair.

Hakuba waited patiently as Kuroba's face turned into a mask of concentration, his mouth twitching as the stem was contorted into shape. Finally he spat the cherry stem back out and held it up for Hakuba to see.

He'd tied the cherry stem into a double knot.

Bastard.

Hakuba pointedly ignored Kuroba's triumphant smirk as he retrieved TWO cherries and put them in his mouth, working on the stems.

Kuroba's smug grin faded slightly as he looked up behind Hakuba. "Yo, Aoko! What's up with Koizumi?"

Hakuba looked up to see Aoko with a hand on Koizumi's arm, a worried expression on the blue-eyed girl's face. Koizumi had a hand clasped over her nose and rather glazed expression on her face.

"I don't know!" Aoko said worriedly. "We were walking over to join you when she suddenly got this nosebleed!"

Koizumi was waving her free hand as if to say she was all right. It wasn't convincing as Aoko helped the larger girl sit down.

Hakuba pulled the stems from his mouth and absent-mindedly held them for Kuroba to see. The stems were tied together in a square knot. Kuroba gave him a sullen look. "Anything we can do to help?" Hakuba offered.

"I'm fine. I'm fine," Koizumi said, accepting the handkerchief that Aoko pressed upon her. There was a strange inflection to her voice and Hakuba noted with some concern that her eyes appeared to be slightly dilated. "Just... continue with what you were doing. Please."

Both he and Kuroba exchanged puzzled looks for a moment before Kuroba shrugged and grabbed another cherry.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Ysabet's fault for starting a cherry stem tying contest.   
> I won.  
> ^_^


	15. Crossing  the Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Egon:** Don't cross the streams.  
>  **Peter:** Why?  
>  **Egon:** It would be bad.  
>  **Peter:** I'm fuzzy on the whole good-bad thing. What do you mean, bad?  
>  **Egon:** Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.  
>  **Ray:** Total protonic reversal.  
>  **Peter:** All right, that's bad, okay. Important safety tip, don't cross the streams.  
>  -Ghostbusters

• • • 

Kuroba did not look well, was the main thought throughout Hakuba's morning. Not well at all.

There had been a heist early that morning, the sky shifting to blue as the thief vanished into the sky, just as his heist note had predicted. The fact that this meant that there had been no time for the kaitou to stop by his house for what was becoming their usual after-heist talk did nothing to ease the quiet knot of unease that lay in the pit of his stomach. He'd barely had time to get to school before the bell rang himself.

Aiding to his anxiety was the fact he swore he had seen something strike the Kid as he had glided away. The glider had jolted and veered slightly, not flying like its usual smooth path.

Kuroba had made it on time to class, but was quiet and highly subdued for the normally spirited teen, his movement tense and minimal. Hakuba kept a close eye on him and was silently dismayed when he noticed the splash of white under the short sleeves of Kuroba's summer uniform. He was even more dismayed when the material around the area began to take on a darker damp sheen.

Kid had been injured in the getaway. Kuroba had been injured.

To say Hakuba was displeased was an understatement.

But he was not surprised when Kuroba disappeared during the lunch period.

It only took a moment for him to deduce where the thief had gone. Up. Kid and Kuroba felt most comfortable near the open sky, where there was little chance for ambush and many escape routes. Therefore the roof was the best bet.

It was warm on the roof, the air beginning to taste a bit like summer. He was slightly surprised to find that at first glance, there was no one on the rooftop. Then the sound of muttering caught his ears, making him relax slightly. Of course Kuroba would hide himself. He followed it around the small building housing the stairs to the where it provided some protection from curious eyes and shade from the warm sun.

The white button down shirt was off, clutched in the hand of the injured arm, leaving Kuroba clothed above the waist in a vest, carefully unwinding the bandage from his injury with a painful grimace. He startled as Hakuba stepped closer, pressing a hand against the obviously oozing cut as if to hide it, a trapped guilty expression flittering across his face before a fierce mask melted down, like a cornered injured animal.

Hakuba approached him calmly, keeping his own neutral mask up until he was in the shade as well, within Kuroba's space. It hurt, a little bit, that Kuroba didn't trust him with the knowledge that he was the Kid. On the other hand, he and the Kid were... close, not he and Kuroba.

He put one hand on Kuroba's bare shoulder, the skin warm under his fingers as he kept Kuroba from fleeing and lightly pressed his other palm and fingers across Kuroba's eyes. "You did not see this," he said, his voice low and a bit on the rough side. Kuroba startled slightly, but closed his eyes anyway. Hakuba hesitated a moment, making sure that Kuroba was not going to suddenly startle or run off before moving his hands and beginning to unwind the bandage around left arm.

It was a moderate-sized cut, nothing he could see stuck in it, no white flecks of fat mixed in with the drying blood. Kuroba had probably not had much time to do anything other than wrap a quick bandage on it. A bandage that had long since served its purpose.

Curiously, there was a scar paralleling the current one, a few finger widths above. This wasn't the first time the magician-thief had been grazed by a bullet.

He turned his attention from that to pulling the first aid supplies he'd brought with him out of his pocket and began to clean blood away from the wound and disinfect it. Once he was satisfied it was as clean as he could get it, he brought the edges of the cut together with butterfly stitches and taped it down, then wrapped a fresh bandage around Kuroba's arm again. Kuroba flinched slightly as he worked, the injury obviously painful, but did not open his eyes or make any noise.

"You'll have to change those later," Hakuba murmured, returning the medical supplies to his pockets and taking Kuroba's shirt from his hand. "Do you know how to take care of it?"

Kuroba nodded, subtly flexing his arm to test the bandage. "Yeah."

Hakuba hmm'd in response, carefully sliding the shirtsleeve over Kuroba's injured arm, then guiding his right arm into the other sleeve. He straightened the shoulders and the collar, then carefully buttoned the shirt closed, leaving the top two buttons undone as was Kuroba's wont.

He lingered over the task longer then he should, he knew it, but that did not stop him from enjoying this small bit of closeness. Feeling slightly emboldened he pressed his lips against Kuroba's temple, the locks of wild dark hair tickling his skin. "Please do not scare me," he requested, hoping that he didn't sound too needy or concerned.

Kuroba had been the Kid for a while now. He did not need anyone to be worried about him or concerned for his safety.

That did not stop Hakuba however.

Kuroba tensed for a second, then a hand brushed one of his in silent acknowledgement. Hakuba nodded once, then stepped sideways and walked back out into the sunlight, then back down the stairs to his desk to finish his lunch.

Kuroba did not look at him the rest of the day. Hakuba focused his attention on schoolwork.

That night, Kid visited his window, hovering on the sill as if he were uncertain of his welcome.

Hakuba smiled slightly, inviting the kaitou in for hot tea and a game of chess.

Much to his delight, Kid smiled back and accepted his offer.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vest = British for an undershirt
> 
> • The previous scar is from 'Lead Tear’. Takes place shortly after Blue Birthday, Snake has shown up at a magic show (Kaito's in disguise there, you can see him doing his father's 'Turkey-out-of-the-Hat' trick in the background), and starts shooting at girl and fellow magician who looks a lot like Yabia's sister. He takes a bullet for her in the chest. Fortunately he's wearing a bullet-proof vest. When they're being chased, a second bullet grazes his upper left arm, tearing the sleeve.  
> The girl then breathes a jet of fire at Snake in retaliation, slightly charring Snake. ^__^ You go girl!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curry is tasty

• • •   
Kuroba looked suspiciously at Hakuba's lunch, much to Hakuba's private amusement. The magician looked like he was contemplating turning the food into a science experiment or to dissect it into little pieces like a frog in science class.

Aoko and Koizumi glanced between the boys, exchanged a look with each other and of mutual accord continued to silently each their lunch. Hakuba was sarcastically honoured to be their entertainment for the lunch break.

Kuroba's silence did not last, it never did for long. "Are those raisins?" he questioned suspiciously, motioning to the black spots that covered Hakuba's food.

"Yes," Hakuba agreed, taking a bite.

"In your curry?" One of Kuroba's eyebrows disappeared under the wild mop of hair that covered his forehead.

"Yes."

Kuroba's nose wrinkled as he debated this. "That's... that's..."

"Quite common in England. We call them 'sultana.’" Hakuba finished for him. "And it is quite tasty as well."

"You're joking."

"I assuredly am not."

Kuroba continued to peer at his lunch curiously. "And people eat it?"

"Obviously." He took another bite, enjoying the spiciness of the curry mixed with the exploding sweetness and texture of the sultana. "-And enjoy it as well."

The eyebrows came back down as Kuroba pondered this conundrum. Hakuba watched him out of the corner of his eye, silently gathering a small spoonful of curry, rice and sultana. When Kuroba opened his mouth again to make a comment, he grabbed Kuroba's nose with one hand to keep his head still and inserted the spoon in to Kuroba's open mouth, then released him.

Kuroba slowly pulled the spoon out of his mouth like it was a declaration of war, lips sliding across the metallic surface before the jaw silently started to move, chewing the food like he was getting ready to spit it out. Kuroba then paused, the glare fading in his eyes as they widened with interest as he began to actually taste the food.

"How is it?" Hakuba inquired mildly after Kuroba swallowed.

"Not bad," Kuroba admitted, licking his lips a little before handing back the spoon.

He graciously took the spoon back. "Thank you." With that, he wiped the utensil off on his napkin and continued eating. He bypassed gloating over it for the moment in favour of saving this for ammunition in future arguments. It never hurt to be right once in a while.

"Wow," Koizumi breathed, eyes wide as she beamed at them. "Does he do that with _everything_ you put in his mouth?!"

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This started out as a discussion between Ysabet and I over strange things we like to put in our japanese curry. Raisins are a favourite of mine, which Ysabet mentioned was a very British thing to do. And, well... there you go.  
> Called 'raisins' instead of 'curry' because Shin'ichi/Conan hates raisins. Hee.


	17. Return of the Pr0n

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of the p0rn

• • • 

It had been an interesting day, Hakuba mused smugly to himself as he sprawled in an armchair in the library. The balcony doors were open, the drapes shifting slightly in the breeze as he waited for the kaitou. There hadn't been a heist tonight, but it was a sure bet his visitor would come.

Kid always knew when something interesting happened.

Hakuba had been mildly stunned when he had stopped by the Kaitou Kid Task Force headquarters and been swept up in the rush as everyone piled into the cars to deal with a call from a movie studio. If pressed, he would have commented that he had had a feeling that he knew what it was about, but had decided to keep his mouth shut after hearing some of the officers comment that they had pre-ordered a movie from this company and never received it.

And proceeded to do his damnedest to ignore the mental pictures of various Task Force members watching a movie that the Kid had specifically shown him a while back...

Fortunately, a comment about their not knowing who the Kid's *ahem* partner was saved him some mortification and he was able to maintain his calm facade without turning red.

Nakamori-keibu had been less than thrilled to learn that the company had received a letter from the Kaitou Kid and not reported it. His displeasure was displayed at high decibel, several of the men commenting that they were pretty sure the glass windows were shaking from the effort. By general consensus, the tirade was given a higher score than average.

There hadn't been any exciting Kid heists lately and Nakamori needed the stress relief.

The shouting wound down as Nakamori-keibu demanded to see exactly what this movie was that the thief was protesting. The shaking man had produced a box cover, with a dramatic picture of the Mock-Kid on the front and various ‘action’ scenes from the film on the back.

Some of which included the Not-Hakuba.

Dead silence filled the room as heads turned in his direction. Hakuba was well aware that he was not the Task Force's favourite person, he'd gotten in thanks to his Father's rank, but he had proven himself several times over, earning a tentative acceptance despite his being an outsider and his young age.

He had been rather proud of his lack of reaction. Especially the fact that his voice had not wavered as he inquired if that was supposed to be a suggestion.

The silence had extended until he inquired if a movie with Nakamori-keibu and the Kaitou Kid was next. The exaggerated responses of distress had been most amusing. He was beginning to understand why both Kid and Kuroba enjoyed causing such mayhem.

He'd kept quiet after that, his mentioning the planned sequel could have been put down to a lucky deduction on his part, but guessing the third one as the rest of the Task Force was pushing it.

Nakamori-keibu had turned a brilliant shade of vermilion anyway, launching into a tirade that had later been argued into the Top Ten Nakamori tirades.

Needless to say, it was doubtful that any more copies of that particular movie were going to be made, much less much of an investigation put forth to stop the thief. For once, the Kaitou Kid had the Task Force's reluctant approval for causing mischief.

His musings were abruptly derailed as Kid abruptly appeared, sitting on the floor twining between Hakuba's legs, tousled head resting against Hakuba's inner thigh, Kid's arms wound around the rest of the leg. "Mmm," Kid purred affectionately, like an oversized cat taking over their favourite lap. "Mai Tai."

Mai Tai. My Thigh. Bad pun. The thought of bopping Kid for the comment flickered across his mind, but he dismissed it. If Kid wanted a fight with words...

"You would not talk so much if you had a cock in your mouth," Hakuba deadpanned

The thief tensed against him and for a moment he panicked that the thief was either repulsed or had decided to take that up as a suggestion.

His fears were allayed when he realised that Kid was grinning, eyes sparkling with un-hidden glee. "Hakuba!" Kid cheered. "You're turning into a pervert!"

The thief was obviously taking credit for it. "You are just now noticing that?" Hakuba retorted. He was a teenager with an attractive thief right there between his legs and he wasn't supposed to make suggestive comments?! He was controlled, not repressed. In fact, if the Kid's head leaned backwards just a little bit more, he'd learn just how unrepressed Hakuba currently was...

"Heh." Kid grinned, subtly stretching and entangling himself around Hakuba's limbs some more until he was comfortably situated, one arm reaching back to rest across one of Hakuba's thighs. There was no way Hakuba was going to be able to stand up any time soon. He smiled, reaching out to trail fingers down Kid's profile, the thief's eyes drifting shut as a contented smile grew. Yup. Giant lap cat.

"You would not happen to know where the missing master copy is, would you?" he questioned. That had been one thing he'd found slightly disturbing, was the fact that the master copy to the movie had been missing, the owners not knowing where it was. But the disappearance hadn't been discovered until several weeks after Kid had first shown the movie to him.

"Yeah." The peaceful smile turned down right impish. "So do you."

"I do?" He pondered this out, remotely grateful for Kid giving him the opportunity to deduct the answer out for himself instead of merely telling him. One thing he enjoyed about the kaitou's presence... the challenges.

There was only one copy he was aware of knowing the whereabouts of. It was the one the Kid had given to him, which was currently in a safe, locked, location.

"You gave me the master copy?" Shock warred with astonishment. If Kid had switched the master copy for an inferior one, it no wonder they couldn't get anything to work properly.

Hell of a present.

"Got it in one." The kaitou looked downright smug. "Can you think of a safer place for it?"

Not really. He was not about to let it out of his grasp, that was for damn sure. If it was released, it was probably more detrimental to his reputation than Kid's.

Although it might be a massive disappointment to the hordes of screaming Kaitou Kid fans...

"Thank you," Hakuba finally said softly. Kid's response was to catch ahold of his drifting hand and press a kiss into the palm, the light exhalation of breath on the sensitive area causing his skin to tingle slightly.

"You're welcome."

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Mai Tai](http://www.tradervics.com/mai-tai-1.html) = Mixed drink with lots of Rum in it.
> 
> Personal challenge to myself after a particularly rambunctious Anime Night to write a fic using the 'Mai Tai = My Tai' pun and 'You wouldn't talk so much if you had a cock in your mouth.' ^___^


	18. Startled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You knocked me out_  
>  You bit my lip.  
> You held me down  
> Kept me sober.  
> \- Linda Perry featuring Grace Slick, "Knock Me Out"

• • •

 

Kid was already standing in the middle of his bedroom when he arrived home from the heist. The thief was as silent as a statue, head slightly bowed as if his attention was elsewhere, the only thing moving being his cape shifting slightly in the breeze.

Feeling puckish, Hakuba chuckled to himself, quietly padding over to his guest, his socked feet making no noise on the carpet. Kid remained motionless as Hakuba got right behind him. Reaching out, he rested a hand on Kid's hip. "Boo!"

The effect was instantaneous. Hakuba abruptly found himself impacting against the wall next to the bedroom door, the breath being knocked out of him as he slid down the wall. He wheezed, gasping for air and found himself looking up at the barrel of a gun, chips of icy violet blue glaring at him from above that.

Violet blue that widened in shock as the Kid's expression filled with horror. "Shit!" Between one wheezing gasp and the next, the Kid was gone, flown out the window.

Hakuba banged the back of his head against the wall. Damn.

Damn it all.

• • •

The next day at school, they played basketball for Physical Education.

Normally, Hakuba enjoyed basketball. His width and height came in useful in throwing the ball and blocking other players from passing the ball to their team-mates, usually allowing one of his smaller, slightly faster team-mates the opportunity to steal the ball and take a shot.

Not that he approved of stealing in any way shape or form. Really.

But this time, they put both Kuroba and himself on the same team. Which was ordinarily fine, the two of them played decently well together. Normally.

Today though... to say that Kuroba was not his usual cheerful bouncy self was a vast understatement. Oh, he was still bouncing, smiling and cheerful, but there was an undercurrent of darkness beneath his joviality today, a lurking aggression.

An aggression that found an outlet on the basketball court. More specifically, in Hakuba's direction. Which was fine by him, he had some pent up anger himself to work out anyway. Their strengths may have been different, but Kuroba was strong, strong enough to take whatever Hakuba dished out. Just as Hakuba could handle whatever Kuroba threw at him.

Passing the ball between the two of them resembled missile launches as they tossed the ball at each other with more intent of bodily harm than actually passing the ball. People scrambled to dodge out of the way instead of to catch the ball. The points for their team rose higher as the game turned from a team sport to a vicious one-on-one.

It was about the time that Hakuba got a bloody lip from the ball slamming into his face that the teacher caught on to what was going on and sent them both to the school nurse to cool down. Hakuba didn't care about the fact his lip was cracked and bleeding, it mirrored the one on Kuroba's face and the scrapes and bruises over both of their bodies. What mattered was that they were bloody well even.

The two of them trudged through the hallways like warriors coming back from the battle, wounded but triumphant, side by side as they pointedly did not look at each other. Didn't matter that they'd been beating the crap out of each other with a large orange and black rubber ball, what mattered was that neither of them had cried mercy in the midst of it.

Therefore, they were both victorious over the other.

They cleaned their bruises and scrapes in silence, ignoring each other as they did so. Then bandaged and beginning to feel the beginning of the aches that would really painful tomorrow, they both sat down, pressing ice packs on various parts of their injured anatomy to prevent swelling later.

So they sat there, stiffly holding ice packs as the intellectual part of his brain finally wrestled control back from his growling anger and started chiding him for losing control like that.

And the worst part was that he was mad at Kuroba, but he wasn't, because Kuroba wasn't the Kid, but he was. Which was part of the problem. Part of the confusion.

And if he was brutally honest, he was furious with himself. He'd royally cocked up. Out of all people, he should have known better. The Kaitou Kid was exactly that, a kaitou. A flying phantom thief with strange people shooting at him, police chasing after him and the instincts inherit thereof. Dangerous instincts. Ones necessary to the kaitou's survival. And much to his embarrassment and mortification, he had forgotten that.

If Kid had been Watson, he could have easily lost a body part, not just been thrown across the room and had the breath knocked out of him.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, smoothing down the tussled strands and feeling like a blasted clot. "I should apologise." Kuroba, who had been staring off at some unidentified speck on the floor glanced up at him, dark eyes widen in mild surprise. Hakuba continued, looking straight ahead. "It is not you I am currently upset with."

"Yeah, well..." Kuroba shrugged. "You're not totally at fault here," he admitted, looking rather shamed-faced as well. "Did something stupid last night and it just kinda..."

"-Carried over," Hakuba nodded, finishing the sentence.

"Exactly." Kuroba flashed him a rueful grin. "Truce?"

"Truce." He and Kuroba shook on it, the handshake strong and secure, then grimaced as bruises made themselves known at the movement.

"Let's not do this again," Kuroba commented with a lopsided grin, one that made his now-appearing black eye wrinkle in mirth.

Hakuba chuckled, ignoring the twinges of pain that brought. "Agreed."

• • •

That night, he found Kid sitting on the window ledge of his bedroom, the cape mingling with the movements of the curtains in the breeze.

Hakuba shuffled his feet, partly out of surprise. He hadn't expected to thief to come back after last night. "Hullo."

Kid smiled back, a bit tentatively. "Nice night."

"Yes," he agreed, walking next to the window. He paused, resting against the edge of the window and looking out at the sky through the tree branches outside, just inside the each other's personal space.

It was a nice night out.

"So." He cleared his throat. "How did the heist last night go?"

A laugh answered him, then Kid began to talk, the incident of the previous night forgotten. Or at the very least, put aside.

And if a bit of a bruise peeked out beneath a layer of makeup on Kid's un-monocled eye, well, Hakuba wasn't going to comment on it.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song lyrics come from track eight on the Crow: City of Angels soundtrack. We were listening to it as we typed, to keep the right mood going. ^^;; It just kinda fit, even if the description isn't accurate.


	19. Lellyphant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hakuba's got a slightly embarrassing weakness.

• • • 

"I thought you were leaving the day after tomorrow," the Kid's voice echoed from the window. Hakuba looked up from where he was folding clothes on the bed, his suitcase open and waiting for the garments. The thief was crouched on the window ledge like a bird, not quite inside, but not quite outside either.

"I am," he agreed. Time for his trip to England for the summer, to visit family and catch up on everything he had missed. He was approaching it with definite mixed emotions. On one hand, he got to see his family. On the other hand, he. Got. To. See. His. Family. "Please do come in. Since the flight leaves at approximately ten after four in the morning, I thought it best to pack in advance."

"Logical," Kid agreed, sliding inside. He slipped his shoes off at the window, then knelt and turned them so the toes were facing the wall, in a parody of entering someone's house. It was a small gesture, but one that never failed to both please and amuse Hakuba. "Need any help?"

"Thank you, but I think I have got it well in hand." Hakuba smiled slightly. "However, company would not be turned away."

"That I can do," Kid agreed cheerfully, settling himself at the head of the bed, sitting cross-legged so that he was out of the way as he watched the proceedings with a curious air. "I suppose you're an old hand at this by now."

"An understatement," Hakuba wearily agreed. Travelling to Japan at least once a year while he grew up in England, travelling around both Japan and Britain to visit both sides of the family, then miscellaneous trips to Europe during various times of the year. Sometimes it felt like he was better off living out of a suitcase with his place of residency changing every few months.

He froze as he saw the Kid's amused gaze sharpen into interest as the thief spotted something on the bed. Hakuba's mouth opened then closed as he felt his face pale then heat up in mortification as he realised what had caught Kid's attention.

Oh... Bollocks.

Kid raised an eyebrow at him, informing him that yes, he had noticed Hakuba's reaction as the thief casually reached forward and picked up the elephant plushie leaning against the suitcase. Hakuba swallowed, embarrassment warring with the urge to swat Kid's hat over his eyes and grab the stuffed animal back, keeping it safe.

The thief's face was carefully neutral as he gently cradled the elephant in his hands, turning it this way and that, gloved fingers tracing along worn patches on the large ears and long upturned nose. "Sir Stinky, I presume?" Kid asked inquisitively.

"Um... yeah." He felt his stomach hit somewhere around his ankles. It was one thing to have people tease him about a supposedly mythical plushie at school... but to have the Kid, someone whom he both respected and admired see the elephant was another story. Any creditability he'd managed to gain or respect he'd earned was probably gone now, shot to heck and gone.

Instead of mocking him though, the Kid simply turned plushie around and sat him in the nook his crossed legs formed. Kid looked at him patiently, as if wondering why Hakuba hadn't moved while Sir Stinky smiled serenely from the Kid's lap.

Hakuba startled, realising that Kid wasn't going to ask, wasn't going to press him about his packing such a juvenile object. He cleared his throat, attempting to cover his embarrassment as his hands reached for a shirt and folded it.

He folded in silence, methodically making neat piles of folded clothing. Shirts, trousers, a few shorts, toiletries, socks, undergarments (which were put on the opposite side of the bed from the Kid) and a few gifts. He debated as he did so, both unnerved and comforted by the Kid's silence. Kid would respect his boundaries as he had tried to respect the Kid's boundaries.

"He was a gift from an Uncle Ernest when I was three," he said, the words coming from his mouth before his brain had made a decision to speak or not. "He was a fan of Rudyard Kipling's ever since he could read, saving to go to India when he was a few years older than we are. The running joke that we never got him back."

A quick glance out of the corner of his eye showed Kid listening attentively and Hakuba felt himself relax into the storytelling a bit. "With Father's job here and Mum in London, I did a fair amount of travelling around and Uncle Ernest felt that I needed a companion, someone who was with me when no one else could be."

"Sir Stinky." Kid petted the elephant on the head. The plushie seemed to lean into the touch, happily accepting the attention.

"Precisely." He felt his lips twist into a dry-half smile. "Three year old logic being what it is, I saw the long nose and proclaimed that he must smell a lot. Uncle Ernest then decided that he must be a 'Sir' as well, a noble knight to protect me on my travels, and thus 'Sir Stinky' he was christened."

"Clever," Kid commended him.

"For a three year old, anyway." Hakuba shrugged. "He has travelled with me ever since. The few times I have left him at one place of residency or another for various reasons, there has always been an accident involving the vehicle I am travelling in. So now he comes along with me as a good luck charm."

Which was true enough. Collecting elephants with raised trunks were considered good luck. If the trunk was down, it was bad luck. His uncle had also explained that despite their large size and bulk, elephants were very gentle creatures and highly intelligent.

And an elephant never forgot.

Kid grinned. "Never thought of you as the superstitious type," he teased lightly.

"I am not." He smiled back. "But one cannot argue with the track record. And oftentimes he makes for a much more intelligent companion than those travelling around me."

That earned him a rolling chuckle from the thief. "Can't argue with that one." A more sombre look flickered across the jovial face. "It's not nearly as fun travelling by yourself."

"No." Hakuba agreed. "It is not."

They lapsed into contemplative silence for a few moments, Kid idly petting Sir Stinky while Hakuba put the folded clothing neatly into his case.

"So you're coming back the week before school starts?" Kid finally asked, his tone a studied careful nonchalant.

"Week and a half." He tapped the brim of the top hat, tilting it over the Kid's face. "Try not to have too much fun without me around."

"I'll try," was the long suffering response as Kid pushed the hat back on his head. "Don't get too carried away chasing those European bandits."

"Something tells me I will not be sitting down to tea with any thieves in London." Hakuba paused, reflecting on the weight of his words as well as reviewing some of the people whom he was likely to run into for a moment. "Any known thieves anyway."

"Thieves you know about?" Kid grinned.

"That too." Close enough.

Kid nodded, obviously pleased by the answer. "Good."

Hakuba's eyes widen slightly as he looked at Kid. Was it just his imagination, or was the thief being territorial? Over him? "Jealous?" he asked.

"Hmphf." Kid's expression slid into aloof. "It's not like either of us can ask the other to simply stop doing what we do best."

"True." It would not be fair of him to ask of the Kid not to execute heists during his absence, just like the Kid could or would not ask for him not to chase other criminals. Apart from the kaitou, Hakuba did have an excellent track record. And Kid did have a particularly strong moral streak, his law-breaking aside.

Hakuba leaned towards the Kid, getting into the thief's personal space. "I trust you would not complain overly much if I requested that no one captured you before my return?"

"I think I can honour that request." Kid's smile was lazy as he arched up, meeting Hakuba's lips with a languid kiss.

Yet another thing he was going to miss while in England. Kid was such a pleasure to kiss.

"Shall we continue this in the other room?" Hakuba requested when they paused for air. He was slightly uncomfortable with getting too carried away in his bedroom, there being the temptation of a rather large bed here and all. He was not quite that comfortable with his relationship with the kaitou, despite what his hormones might think. "Over a game, perhaps?"

"Parcheesi is from India, is it not?" Kid smiled, a similar understanding underneath the slight teasing as he held up Sir Stinky. "You keep threatening to teach me it."

"Yes. Uncle Ernest taught the game to me as well. If he is visiting, I suspect he will want a rematch." He eased off the bed, the kaitou following him.

"Then we can't let you go without some practice. It wouldn't be sportsman-like," Kid said amiably as they wandered out of the room, the plushie still in the Kid's grasp. "Sir Stinky can referee!"

Hakuba could not quite smother his chuckles, not even after Kid put the elephant between them at the table, to overlook the game.

The next day, when he reached into his carryon bag, he was surprised to find that Sir Stinky had somehow acquired a travelling companion. A small smiling handmade plushie with a mop of wild brown yarn hair under a top hat, with a cape, monocle and white tuxedo.

A miniature Kaitou Kid.

Hakuba smiled the entire flight to London.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncle Ernest was named for the author 'Ernest Hemmingway'.  
> Voices have a note that he might have had a wife who died in childbirth in India, which is why he is so kind to Hakuba, Hakuba reminding him of the child he lost.
> 
> We've been talking recently with Becky Tailweaver and some others about what Hakuba's home life may have been like. Since his Mother is British and his Father Japanese, he wouldn't exactly belong in either culture. Being a half-breed would most likely mean that many people would probably believe that he was exotic looking, but only having half the intelligence. There is also the possibility that of his family members on both sides would think this as well. (think Inuyasha, the outcast.)  
> Of course, Hakuba -is- intelligent, but has a massive handicap in the fact that he doesn't understand what motivates people. He's also having to prove himself, much like his hero, Sherlock Holmes, who wasn't exactly a social butterfly either.
> 
> The plushie comes from a short story which is 4 pages long and contains no text in one of our favourite doujinshi, 'Graffiti' by Kyarana / Nonoya*Masaki. There's a small, obviously hand-made Kid plushie on a bookshelf that keeps falling down on Hakuba, who's sitting below it reading. He finally gets pissed off and almost throws it.
> 
> The last panel is of Hakuba asleep on the beanbag, the book open against his chest, the plushie back on the shelf, and Kaito grinning from the window, a remote control in hand.  
> The author's note shows Kaito sewing the plushie. ^___^


	20. Hot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was hot.

• • • 

Shades of Grey: Hot  
by Icka! M. Chif

• • • 

It was hot.

Scorching.

Sweltering.

And a whole bunch of other names that Hakuba was sure he would think of once his brain cooled down enough to work properly.

And the incessant drone of the cicadas was irritating.

Mainly it was just hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Even stripped down to a vest and boxers with the air conditioner on, it was hot.

Maybe he should have stayed in England a few more days.

No, then he would have missed the heist.

It was also humid. He wasn't quite sure which was worse, the heat or the humidity. Maybe if it would rain, it would help.

But it wouldn't rain, no. The moisture was content to hang in the air, wrapping around everything like a muggy cloud, suffocating the energy out of everything.

Except for the Kid. While everyone else had been sweating and gasping and panting in the heat and the humidity which stuck around long after the sun had set, dressed in their in their uniforms and their dress shirt and their ties, the thief had been bouncing around like a super active ping-pong ball on crack. Laughing.

There were times when he loathed the Kaitou Kid.

This was one of them.

That was it, he wasn't going to move. If the Kid wanted to talk to him tonight about the case, he was going to have to track Hakuba down himself, cause there was no way he was going to get up from his bed.

A thud from the library balcony blew that thought out of the water.

"Hakuba?" Kid's voice called, muffled by the walls. "Could you give me a hand here?"

Still feeling rather apathetic, he raised his hands and clapped a few times.

Silence followed.

"If you give me a hand," Kid's voice changed to an amused purr, "I have something long and hard for you to wrap your mouth around."

"Wanker," Hakuba muttered, rolling out of bed and dragging himself into the library. The insufferable git. Sure, just flush his mind right into the gutter. Wasn't like he wasn't sweating already. His glasses wouldn't even stay where they were supposed to; they kept sliding down his nose. Geh. His skin felt sticky too.

The library was warmer than his room too. Blech. He opened up the library balcony doors, half wondering why Kid couldn't do it himself. Locked windows weren't a problem, why should a normal unlocked door require a hand?

The question was answered as a plastic wrapped popsicle was shoved in his direction.

Ooo... ice.

"You're forgiven," he said magnanimously as he took the blue ice treat from the Kid's hand. The thief snickered as he used his now-free hand to hit a button, the framework of the hang glider folding itself up and returning once more into a cape, thus unhooking Kid from the balcony railing.

"Love you too," Kid smirked, opening his jacket and began working on loosening his tie with one hand, baring sweat-slicked neck to the air. "Can we get inside where it's cool?"

Okay, so maybe there were some upsides to the heat...

"Enter of your own accord." Hakuba shrugged, opening the wrapper to the popsicle, quickly catching the melted drips with his tongue before they could make a mess as he walked into the library. Would not be a good idea to get sticky sugar residue all over the room of books.

"Thank you," Kid said gratefully, following him in, shutting the door behind them. Compared to the outside, the room was cooler, but not by much. It was still bloody hot. The popsicle was cold in his mouth, a blessed contrast. It tasted somewhere between grape and blueberry, that taste that someone somewhere had decided to label as 'blue'.

Feeling much more charitable, he motioned Kid towards his room. "It's cooler in my room, though not by much," he said by way of apology.

"Excellent." The weariness in the thief's voice made him cast a second glance at his guest. Kid looked like heat was affecting him as well and Hakuba found himself mildly surprised that he wasn't swimming in the suit. "Mind if lose a few layers while I'm at it?"

He waved a hand in response, plopping down on the nice cool cotton sheets of the bed with a grateful sigh. Much better. Never leaving the bed again. Never ever.

Kid made a similar sound, still wrapped popsicle held in his mouth as he set the hat down on the desk chair, running a hand through the sweat drenched locks, turning them into a mass of even smaller spikes. The cape and jacket followed, folded over the back of the chair. A leather gunholster/braces was wiggled out of and set on top before gloved fingers untucked the blue shirt from the white trousers and began unbuttoning it.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. One advantage of the heat he hadn't even considered. Inadvertent strip show. Excellent.

Kid shucked out of the socks and shoes and plopped backwards on the bed, unbuttoned shirt flaring around him. "Aaaah." The thief let out a deep breath, eyes half lidded. "Niiiiiiiiiiice."

Hakuba snickered, his mouth still full of popsicle.

The thief made a vague half-hearted rude gesture in his direction and began unwrapping his popsicle, melted blue ice running over the white gloves even as Kid quickly attempted to lap it up before it made a mess. He managed to avoid getting it all over his chest and the bed, but the white gloves were now splotched with vibrant blue.

Popsicle in his mouth, Kid looked at the usually pristine gloves with something like dismay. Hakuba chuckled again, lacking the urge to make a verbal comment about it. Kid raised an eyebrow in his direction, then pointedly began taking his gloves off.

Hakuba's eyebrows rose.

Kid took the popsicle out of his mouth with an ungloved hand. "If you take my prints off the popsicle stick, then I'm a moron."

With that sullen remark, Kid stuck the ice back in his mouth and half-heartedly tossed the gloves in the direction of the rest of his clothing, as if challenging Hakuba to make something out of the display of trust.

"If I was going to get your fingerprints, I'd take it off the plastic wrapper." Hakuba corrected mildly. There was very little chance of Kid having bought the popsicle while in Kid clothing, therefore that meant bare hands. And plastic was easier to get prints off of than rough wood.

The comment earned him a calculating sideways stare.

Hakuba idly shrugged, going back to slurping the melting popsicle. Kid said nothing, keeping a suspicious eye on him.

Silence fell over them, as hot and muggy as the weather. Finally Hakuba allowed a small smirk to escape. "But it is hot outside," he drawled.

Kid looked up at the ceiling, thoughtfully sucking on his popsicle. "Too hot to move," he ventured.

"Exactly."

Muscles suddenly relaxing, Kid melted into the bed in a weary sprawl. Water. They should both be probably drinking lots of water right now, especially after all the exertion they had done. "I am never doing a heist in this kind of heat again," Kid swore, eyes now half lidded in exhaustion.

Hakuba raised his popsicle in salute. "I will personally kick your arse if you do."

Kid tapped the upraised popsicle with his own. "Here, here."

Satisfied with the agreement, with a companionable air they returned to the important all-consuming task of lying on the cool sheets and decimating the frozen blue ice on a stick.

"Welcome back," Kid said after a while.

Hakuba smiled. "Thanks."

-fin-


	21. Relative Truths

• • •

"Kuroba..." Hakuba tugged his host off to the side, keeping a weather eye on the three women as they talked. "Why does Aoko-kun look like a younger version of your mother?"

This was the first time he had visited the Kuroba household and met the woman who raised Kuroba. She looked just like the pictures he'd seen in the hallway of her, the likeness in Kuroba that showed in his round face and wild hair, mixed with the sharp features and fierceness of the deceased Kuroba Toichi. However, he had never realised just how similar those same features were on the younger Nakamori until he'd seen Aoko talking to Kuroba's Mother face to face.

It wasn't just a passing similarity. It was an uncanny similarity.

There was a brief flash of panic on Kuroba's face, so fast he might have missed if it he wasn't used to attempting to pick up clues from the Kid's expression, before it fell into a bland mask of nonchalance. "Really? I've never noticed it."

Bullshit. Hakuba frowned, glaring at the magician.

"Look Tantei-san," Kuroba obviously caught his stubborn expression and sighed. "Do you think you could drop it? As a personal favour?" The tone was wistful, but there was a 'before I have to hurt you' part of the statement, which was no less valid. Hakuba recognized it as Kuroba going into Aoko-protective mode.

Hakuba paused. Could he drop it? He liked mysteries, he liked solving mysteries and this was a mystery involving his favourite mystery itself. But at the same time, if this was a family thing that didn't hurt anyone, it really was none of his business.

But...

"I will try," he promised. His friendship with both Kuroba and Aoko was nowhere near stable and the last thing he cared to do was alienate either of them.

Kuroba nodded, patting his shoulder before returning to Koizumi and Aoko, who were having an entirely inordinately good of a time talking to the magician's mother. Hakuba almost felt bad for Kuroba, dealing with the after-effects of this meeting. Koizumi knowing anything personal was scary. You never knew what she was going to do with the most innocent of information.

Say, like, Sir Stinky...

Kuroba and Aoko herded them up to Kuroba's room, where they took over the bed and the floor, talking and laughing. Or at least the other three did, Hakuba found himself hanging back a bit and lingering. Watching. He got a few odd looks for it, but no one brought him up on it. He tended to go quiet occasionally and they were aware of his silent moods.

It was funny, the little things he had never noticed before as Kuroba and Aoko sat next to each other, jostling each other as they talked back and forth, Koizumi adding her biting witticism at various junctures. Such as the little mannerisms they had in common, hand gestures, ways of pronouncing certain words, body language. It could be logicked away due to the fact that they had been close mates since sometime around their kindergarten or first elementary school years. Mannerisms were often passed back and forth between people after extended amounts of time.

... Stubbornness was definitely a feature that they both shared....

There were differences, of course, aside from the rather obvious one of their different genders. Aoko's face was more rounded, feminine, while Kuroba was all lines and masculine angles. But even then, there were similarities in the shapes of their eyes and noses. At certain times, their eyes almost seemed the same shades of blue. At least while Kuroba was relaxed and acting as himself instead of the Kid. Kid's eyes were usually violet in the shadows.

Their hair was even similar. Aoko's was longer, of course, but the spiky patterns at the top were close. Different shades as well, Aoko's being slightly lighter.

He was torn between awe and exasperation with himself over the fact that he had never noticed how much like siblings Kuroba and Aoko looked. They were so close, so much of a matched set that it was easy to ignore the obvious.

But once he noticed the similarities, the slight differences became glaringly obvious as well. Siblings oftentimes looked nothing like each other, despite what adoring relatives might say. And now that he had the template of Kuroba's mother in his head, he could see the Nakamori influence clearly in Aoko.

And it did not makes sense that Nakamori-keibu would raise a child that was not his own. Especially lacking a wife. Which then brought up the question that had been bothering him for a while, where was Aoko's mother and what happened to her? Kuroba's Mother and Aoko seemed friendly, but not particularly close, but then he was not the best at reading or understanding people.

The afternoon passed quickly and before he realised it, he was snapped from his musings by the girls rising to head home before it got too late. He said his goodbyes automatically, rising to escort them out. He hung back as they left, returning back to Kuroba's room as if on autopilot, sinking back down onto the pillow he'd been sitting on most of the evening.

He was vaguely aware of Kuroba following, closing the door behind them then standing over him, arms crossed and face impassive. Hakuba looked up after a few minutes of silence. "Aoko-kun is your half-sister-?"

Kuroba looked at him for a moment, then noisily blew air out of his mouth in a not quite sigh, making a muttered comment about idiot detectives that turned into a rueful half-laugh. Hakuba found himself blushing slightly, having second thoughts about if he really should have let the subject drop.

The other boy sank gracefully down onto his former seat, next to the bed and crossed his legs. "So you figured it out, did you?"

Hakuba shrugged, rubbing his nose in a nervous gesture that would have made more sense if he'd been wearing his glasses at the moment. "Just that," he admitted. He'd gotten the 'what' part, but not the 'why' or 'how' parts. And 'where' and 'when' didn't quite fit into this puzzle. Nor did he think he was privy to such incidences, thank you very much.

However, his mind could think of a few possibilities for 'how,’ but he shied away from those with a disturbed feeling in his gut. He liked these people, admired them even, and did not wish to paint them with that sort of brush, even in his mind. And admittedly he still wasn't very good at 'why,’ but he was improving slightly under Kuroba's influence. Second-guessing phantom thieves did that to a person.

Kuroba shook his head. "Shoulda known you couldn't drop it." The tone was not unkind, almost fond, but Hakuba grimaced anyway.

"My apologies," he chagrined at the lapse in manners and etiquette. Especially since it involved family members and secrets of a family he was not related to. He was being deplorably rude again.

The wild haired boy waved it off. "Should I explain, or do you want to deduct the rest?"

"I..." Part of him wanted to figure the rest out on his own, if nothing else than for pride's sake. But this was Kuroba and Aoko's families and any sort of investigation, no matter how careful, carried the chance of backfiring in his face, hurting quite a few people he cared about. The cons outweighed the pros in this situation. "Explainion, please. I would be honoured."

And if nothing else, Kuroba could weave a good story.

"It's probably redundant to say this, but this doesn't go any farther than the two of us." Kuroba sighed, leaning against the side of the bed, one arm resting against the top of the mattress. He glanced quickly at the door to verify that it was shut properly. This was not really a deterrent if someone wanted to eavesdrop, but the precaution was noted.

And this was a thieves' household. Who knew? Maybe it was more secure than it looked. Kuroba/Kid had to work somewhere.

"Agreed." His honour on it.

Kuroba nodded, apparently pleased, then tilted his head back as he began the story. "Something that a lot of people don't know is that Oyaji and Nakamori-keibu used to be friends, way before Aoko and I met. In fact, they were rival suitors over 'Kaasan. Obviously, Oyaji won."

"Obviously," Hakuba echoed. Otherwise Kuroba Kaito would not exist. "I hope there were no hard feelings about that."

"Nah." Kuroba grinned. "Nakamori-keibu met one of 'Kaasan's cousins at the wedding, fell head over heels with her. Literally, from what 'Kaasan says. Auntie Kinko. They got married less than a year later." The grin faded as Kuroba scratched the back of his head, his expression turning morose. "Auntie Kinko wasn't the healthiest of people. She and Nakamori-keibu wanted kids, but she... just couldn't carry them."

"I'm sorry," Hakuba said quietly. Kuroba shrugged in return.

"Well, since 'Kaasan was really close to Auntie Kinko and was healthier, they came up with the idea of maybe 'Kaasan being a surrogate mother for them. Then when Auntie Kinko started taking a turn for the worse, they went through with it."

"So Aoko was born."

"Yeah." A small fond smile flitted over Kuroba's face for a moment, then returned to his storytelling facade. "Auntie Kinko died shortly after Aoko was born, but she got to hold her daughter before that happened. Then 'Kaasan got pregnant with me a few months later, and me being my usual impulsive self came a few months early."

Eight months apart. "Irish twins," Hakuba chuckled. At Kuroba's confused expression, he hastened to clarify. "Siblings born within a year of each other. Only you are not quite siblings..."

"Well..." Kuroba stretched the word out, looking uncomfortable. "That's the tricky part. Nakamori-keibu pulled me aside a while back and told me about it, cause Aoko and I were getting close. Because of Auntie Kinko being so weak they... may have kinda substituted some of her damaged cells with Mom's cells. Close genetics and all. So either way she's either my half-sister or my second cousin, but she's still..."

"She is family," Hakuba finished for him. "Aoko-kun told me a while back that things had mysteriously changed between the two of you, that it appeared that you were distancing yourself from her. I assume that this is the cause of it?"

"Not... distancing, exactly. There's other factors here." Kuroba made a pained face at the vague mention of his 'night job' as the Kaitou Kid. "But yeah. Nakamori-keibu said that neither he nor Oyaji told 'Kaasan about that part, so she doesn't know. But Aoko's a Nakamori no matter what. The inspector's just happy to have a daughter regardless of everything... Man, can he get creative with potential punishments when it comes to something happening to her."

Hakuba had to chuckle at that. "Which, I imagine, are now passed down onto me should his daughter ever discover the circumstances of her birth."

The sharp-toothed grin Hakuba got in return was somehow oddly reassuring for all its ferocity. Constants were constants after all, regardless of where they came from. "You can be assured, I will not pass this information on to anyone." In truth, whom would he pass it on to? The people closest to him were involved in the secret.

"And you're very good at keeping secrets, Tantei-san," Kuroba commented, his dark eyes hooded.

Hakuba nodded, smiling slightly in return. "All part of being a good detective." He allowed his smile to fade, becoming serious again. "I will not treat Aoko-kun any differently, Kuroba. She's a good mate."

"Good." And once again there was a 'or I'd wipe your arse across the floor' message hidden in there. Only now it was a bit more understandable. He'd thought before that Kuroba had been withdrawing from the inspector's daughter because of his taking up the role of the Kaitou Kid, but this filled in some spaces he couldn't puzzle out. The want to have Aoko close to him, but not too close.

And it was amusing to see Kuroba in Protective Brother mode and recognise it for what it was instead of mistaking it for something else. He muffled a chuckle at that.

Conversation drifted to touch on the topics that he had missed earlier due to his mental meanderings and he found himself relaxing and enjoying the bantering conversation for the first time since he'd noticed the similarities between Aoko and Kuroba's Mother.

Too soon he realised that it was time to leave, or risk being invited to dinner by the elder Kuroba. And while the thought was somewhat welcoming, he did not wish to impinge more than he already had upon the family. With more regret than he anticipated, he made his excuses to leave.

As he did so, he found himself watching Kuroba's Mother and relaxing in her unguarded friendliness. Kuroba, secrets he may have been hiding aside, was unabashedly fond of his mother. There was warmth between the two of them, bonds forged by being parent and child as well as the loss of what should have been the third member of their family, Kuroba Toichi. Hakuba smiled at them as he wished them a good night and began the walk home.

As he did so, he passed by another familiar house, the Nakamori household. The inspector was just walking into the house and he could hear the shout of 'Tadaima' and returning cry of 'Okaeri' before the door shut. As much of an indifferent grump the inspector may have acted, no one could dispute the fact that he loved his daughter. And she loved her cranky father.

Hakuba smiled as he walked on, humming slightly as he did so, a random tune stuck in his head. It was peaceful, walking in the twilight hours. The wind was just starting to get that autumn bite to it too; soon it'd be winter again.

Hmm. Almost a year then, since he and Kid had shared that snowbound cabin...

"Tadaima," he called as he opened the door to his house, more out of reflex than anything else. It was rare that anyone was ever home.

"Okaeri," his father's booming voice surprised him by answering back. "Join me, I was just settling down to eat. How did your day go?"

Hakuba's smile grew as he joined his father in the dining room, patting the larger man on the shoulder before taking his seat. "It was... enlightening."

-Fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Acechan for pointing out plot holes and helping us fix them.
> 
> Oyaji - a rude way to refer to your Father  
> 'Kaasan - Mother   
> Kin - gold  
> ko - girl/child  
> Tadaima - I'm home  
> okaeri - Welcome Home
> 
> We did a bit of research on Surrogates, but couldn't find much about the actual procedure. There's some leaps of logic, so if anyone can point us in the direction of some facts to verify, we'd appreciate it. Thanks.
> 
> -Nakamori's first name is Ginzo, which means 'Silver Three'. So Aoko's (blue child) parents are Silver and Gold. ^__^
> 
> Toichi and Ginzo being rival suitors for Kaito's Mom's affections was something we saw in a doujinshi and just... clicked. Kaito's birthday is 21 June, Aoko's is in September (fanon: 26 Sept), so we're kind of playing fast and loose with the canon there. *Shrugs*
> 
> It dawned on us (in a round of 'you are your own worst critic') that some people could see Kaito and Aoko being sibs in this fic as a way of ensuring that there was no way for there to be any kind of romantic relationship between the two of them, thus leaving the way free and clear for Hakuba and Kuroba to get together without any sort of problematic strings attached.
> 
> After quite a bit of internal debate and sock throwing, we realised that yeah, it -could- be interpreted that way, but the simple truth of the matter is that Aoko and Kaito being sibs is something that we've been batting around for a while and this was the AU-series it fit. Kaito and Aoko are dating in both the 'Shinigami Stories' and 'Price You Pay', they did date in 'The Cyote Kid', Hakuba and Aoko end up married with a child in 'Hurt/Pain' and there's some sort of weird threesome developing between Hakuba, Kaito and Aoko in the Vampyre Series. (not asking, something about the energy buzz...)
> 
> So this is just a note to say yes, we fully recognise the fact that they're half sibs here could be constructed as lazy plotting on our behalf, but it is not intended that way. It's just one of those bizarre things that popped up in -this- series, like Hakuba being farsighted and wearing glasses, rather than one of the others. ^^;;
> 
> What? You think we actually control these things? o_O Sheesh.


	22. Learning Languages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I always have to steal my kisses from you.  
> \- Ben Harper

• • •

"Your accent is horrendous," Hakuba commented mildly as they played checkers in the library. It was not intended as a distractionary tactic, he was well aware that both of them could multitask easily, and this was something that had been annoying him for a while.

"I speak just fine," Kid countered, an eyebrow rising into the shadows created by the hair that fell over his face.

"Allow me to amend myself," Hakuba corrected, hopping a checker over one of Kid's and capturing it. "Your accent when you speak English is horrible."

Kid frowned at that, but said nothing as he moved a checker of his own forward. "It has gotten better," he pointed out.

"Some," Hakuba agreed, making his move on the board. "But you still speak like someone who has spoken Japanese all their life."

A sound suspiciously like a snicker escaped the Kid and Hakuba felt a bit of heat rise to his face. Of course he sounded like someone who had spoken Japanese all their life, as far as Hakuba knew, neither this Kid nor Kuroba had ever left the country.

The previous Kid was another story. Twelve other countries and all that.

"So which part of my speech needs the most work?" Kid grinned, a teasing lit to it as one of his pieces jumped over two of Hakuba's pieces, collecting them. "You being the expert native speaker."

"Rediizu ando Jentorumen." Hakuba commented, drawling the Engrish out. He paused, catching the Kid's eye and then pronounced slowly and clearly so that the other could hear the difference: "Ladies and Gentlemen."

Kid flinched slightly. "I don't really sound like that, do I?"

"I could pull out recordings," Hakuba deadpanned, moving a piece.

Kid definitely twitched that time. "All right." The discomfort was replaced by a downright devilish look. "So what should I know first, Sensei?" The last word was said in the same insolent drawl, a mimicry of the night the Kid first appeared at his windows, to fulfil a bet.

Hakuba found himself twitching slightly at the title. It was hard to tell if the honorary title was intended as a compliment or an insult. "Well, a willing partner is helpful," He deadpanned again, echoing his previous reply.

The thief lasted all of three seconds before leaning back in his chair, chortling merrily. Hakuba felt himself smile in return, feeling the muscles in his back and shoulders relax. He waited until Kid leaned forward again, grinning broadly before speaking. "All right?"

"Okay." Kid agreed.

Hakuba nodded. "Good. Repeat after me. 'La.’"

"Re." Kid frowned slightly, hearing the difference and slurring the 'La' into a soft blurred R-L sound. He tried again. "Rea."

"La." Hakuba repeated.

"Rae." Kid watched his mouth intently, noticing the slight changes in tongue placement.

"La."

"Rah." The sound was getting closer.

"La."

"Lrah." Kid was too, leaning forward, a slight crease forming between his brows as he concentrated.

"La."

"Lah."

"La-aah-?" The sound was cut off as Kid caught him off guard, putting his mouth on Hakuba's, his tongue following the motion.

Oh.

Well, he supposed this could be one way to figure out correct pronunciation...

Kid's mouth moved against his and it took a moment to comprehend that the Kid was saying something silently. Then he understood and began to mouth the phrase back. Some of the motions were awkward, especially with someone's tongue in your mouth part of the time, but they managed it.

The thief drew back, half-lidded eyes sparkling playfully. "Ladiesu an' Gentrelmen."

Much better. Still not there, but improved. He smiled back. "How are your 'R's?"

Kid kissed him again, tongue rolling against his. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Oh.

Well.

Maybe a bit more practise on those...

-fin-


	23. Dildo

• • • 

Shades of Grey: Dildo  
by Icka! M. Chif

• • • 

The first thing Hakuba noticed as he walked into the upstairs library was a penis sitting on a table in the middle of the room.

That caused him to pause for a moment, momentarily wondering if his contact prescription had changed and he wasn't looking at, say, a carving of a rabbit. A second look informed that no, there really was a good-sized translucent reddish stone phallus in the middle of the room where there hadn't been one before.

At least he was quite sure there hadn't been one there before; he'd certainly never put one there, but that wasn't saying anything about the other people who existed in the house.

He cleared his throat. "I take it this is the reason the Task Force would not allow me to work on the case tonight," he mused. At least he hoped so.

"Was wondering why you weren't there." Kid materialised out of the shadows, his arms crossed as he looked at the phallic object with a bemused expression.

Hakuba nodded. The Task Force had been slightly more protective about him since the incident with the porn movie. Evidently they thought this a bit too blatant for him. Although it did explain the sudden rise in the level of crude humour around the station.

"Why is there a phallus on the table?" he inquired. Said object seemed to realise it was being talked about, the light catching it and making it glow molten reddish gold.

"It's a carnelian, actually," Kid said casually. "The word coming from the Latin word 'Carnis', meaning 'Flesh.’ Also known to dispel apathy and increase fertility."

"It is a penis."

"It's a historic artefact known to have mystical properties."

"It is a dildo."

"It's tonight's heist."

Hakuba gave his guest a mild glare. "I am NOT returning that to Nakamori-keibu."

"Dammit." Kid deflated slightly. "There goes _that_ idea."

-fin-


	24. The Hazards of Chocolate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hakuba! How you doing?"  
> "The usual. Chasing kaitou, running from kaitou, saving jewels from kaitou, being embarrassed by kaitou..."

• • • 

Someone _sniffed_.

"Something wrong?" Koizumi asked off to his side, out of his periphery vision. Hakuba ignored the sniffing sound as part of the general chaos of pre-class. Teenagers before the first class of the school day usually were one of two extremes: exhausted or bouncing. Neither was conductive for thought or civilised conversation, so he usually spent this time reading.

"Hold on..." That was Kuroba's voice, sounding distant and thoughtful. The sniffing sound came closer and he looked up to see Kuroba leaning over him, a look of in intense interest on his face.

"Can I help you?" Hakuba inquired dryly, mentally setting aside his reading of Tennyson for the moment. Kuroba held up a hand, still sniffing the air around him. The dark haired boy shifted closer, into his personal space, reminding Hakuba of a hound on the trail of a fox. He held himself still as Kuroba hovered, circling around him, his expression shifting from concentration to almost down right predatory.

"What is it?" Koizumi asked, no longer radiating concern, but a cheerful eagerness.

"I smell chocolate." Kuroba's eyes narrowed as he leaned closer, almost touching. For a moment, Hakuba was afraid that Kuroba was going to eat him. "Why do you smell of chocolate, Hakuba-kun?"

Hakuba blinked. Koizumi cackled. It took a moment to realise what Kuroba was talking about and he stood up, pulling a half-melted chocolate bar from his back pocket with what was probably a completely moronic expression on his face, having completely forgotten about it.

"I helped a woman pick up her groceries from the sidewalk on the way to school," he explained. "The bags had broken. She gave me this as a thank you."

"And it's in your pocket..." Koizumi prodded.

"Because I had my hands full of groceries and it required two hands to get it into my bookbag." Perfectly logical explanation, really.

Except they didn't appear even remotely convinced.

He sighed to himself and returned the chocolate bar to his back pocket. This way he'd remember to eat it later. If it didn't melt first. It seemed to be a prudent idea to get the confection out of the combined sight of Kuroba and Koizumi and he felt it might be safer on his person than what the magic users might do to his bookbag.

"Chocolate," Kuroba repeated, face serious. This then shifted to an almost maniacal eagerness. "Can I have some?"

Hakuba had the sudden, inexplicable urge to flee. Swiftly. With all due haste. Before Kuroba jumped him for the contents of his trousers.

Koizumi was giving him quite the evil eye as well.

The door opened, Aoko and Keiko walking into the room. "Hey!" Aoko waved. She paused a few feet away from them, her hand up in the air. "Is that... Okay, who has chocolate?"

Koizumi and Kuroba gave him distinctly voracious looks. Hakuba slowly backed up a step, half hoping to get Aoko and her infamous mop between him and the magical duo. He was not a nummy treat. This gambit failed as Kuroba and Koizumi prowled after him. A very confused Aoko let both him and them pass uncontested. Blast.

Koizumi cackled. "Get him!" she ordered. Kuroba's grin widened. Hakuba dove out the door, dashing down the hall. It only took him a few steps to regret this tactical error.

Kaitou, like most predators, evidently would most eagerly chase their prey if it ran.

As he sprinted down the hall, he realised he had learned two very important facts this day, even before the first school bell had rung.

One: How to attract Kuroba's apparently undivided attention.

Two: He much preferred chasing Kuroba over Kuroba chasing **_him_**.

-fin-


	25. Entering the Ops

• • • 

Shades of Grey: Entering the Ops  
by Icka! M. Chif

• • • 

Hakuba woke up to a bitter taste in his mouth and a gritty sensation behind his eyelids. Not unlike waking up after getting hit with the Kid's sleeping gas. He'd meant to talk to the kaitou about that. If you were going to wake up after being put to sleep against your will, you should at least have a really good buzz or a hangover or get _something_ out of it.

"Oi. Ya awake over there?" a friendly voice with a distinctive Osaka-ben drawl called.

"Vaguely," he responded, sitting up, the heel of one palm pressed against his eye. He really hated falling asleep with his contacts in. A common occurrence since meeting the Kid on a regular basis, he was loathed to say.

And evidently imprisoned in a cell. How lovely.

"Hakuba-kun!" Aoko's voice called, closer than the Osaka voice. "I was worried about you!"

"Aoko-kun?" That got his attention. He rose, walking less-than steadily to the bars that made up one wall of the prison.

"Yay!" The Osaka voice cheered. "He's alive!"

"Heiji!" A second female voice scolded. The boy chuckled in response, completely unrepentant.

"Where are we?" he asked, inspecting the area they were detained in as much as he could given the circumstances. They were in a long corridor from what he could tell. Cells lined the corridor, with other teenagers held inside. The younger ones looked despondent.

"No clue."

A hand reached from the bars beside him and waved, distracting him from their surroundings. "Hi, Hakuba-kun." Aoko wiggled her fingers playfully. He reached through the bars and caught her hand in his.

"Hullo, Aoko-kun. How are you doing?"

"As well as can be expected." Her voice was falsely bright as she twined her fingers in his, ensuring he didn't pull his hand away. He gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze.

The dark-skinned boy in a cell across from them cleared his throat, looking faintly embarrassed at the display of affection. "Hattori Heiji, at yer service," he grinned, speaking with the Osaka accent. "I'd say pleased ta make yer acquaintance, but this ain't exactly the best of circumstances."

"No," he agreed. "This is not. You wouldn't happen to be related to Hattori Heizo, the Director General of the Osaka Prefecture, would you?"

"Got it in one," Hattori said cheerfully. Hakuba recognised the name now. The Teenage Detective of the West, rival to the missing Kudo Shin'ichi. "That's my Oton."

"There's ten of us here, all children of Officers," the ponytail girl supplied helpfully. "Toyama Kazuha, at your service."

Daughter of the Head of the Osaka City Police Department. Aoko was here as well, her father being the Head of the Kaitou Kid Task Force.

"Heiji-kun thinks they might have gotten me by mistake," Aoko added. "My father's the lowest ranking so far." She didn't sound exactly pleased about it. So they were grabbing children from parents ranking above Inspector.

"My apologies." Her fingers tightened around his hand, but she didn't say anything. They'd been walking together to the ice cream shop before meeting Kuroba for tutoring.

"Who's yer father?" Hattori asked, his curious voice deceptively mild. There was steel in the other detective, sharp, like a katana's edge. "Aoko-han couldn't remember his rank."

"Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police," Hakuba said calmly. "I am Hakuba Saguru, pleased to meet you."

That got startled reactions from both Toyama and Hattori. Evidently Hakuba had just inadvertently won the hierarchy-pissing contest. It was both gratifying and annoying.

For some odd reason, it was like no one ever expected his parents to actually amount to anything...

"Does anyone know what we are doing here? Or who brought us here?"

"Not really," Aoko sighed.

"It's a massive hostage situation." Hattori crossed his arms, looking both annoyed and deep in thought. "Someone isn't happy with the Police department, but so far no one's seen who grabbed us."

Hakuba sighed, nodding. He did a quick check of his pockets with his free hand, then frowned. "Does anyone know what time it is?" His pocket watch was missing. Most annoying. According to his internal clock, he could have been out anywhere from a couple of hours to half a day. It was always harder to tell after being drugged.

"Nobody's electronics are workin'," Toyama informed him. "And everyone's watches are missin'."

"Bugger."

Hattori smirked. "Exactly."

"Don't worry," Aoko said brightly. "Kaito'll show up and get us out of here."

Toyama's voice was a strange blend of suspicious and curious. "Who's Kaito?"

"My best friend. He's a Magician." Aoko raised her voice gleefully. "And Hakuba's boyfriend!!"

"HE IS NOT!!" Hakuba shouted back, his voice echoing back at them.

"YET!" Aoko cheered, her hand squeezing his enthusiastically.

"Aoko-kun, I was raised to be a gentleman and not to inflict injury upon women," Hakuba informed her in a haughty tone. "Please do not make me re-examine my ethics."

The Kansai couple exchanged looks through the bars and sweatdropped. The fact that Hakuba had not removed his hand from Aoko's grasp did not help his argument.

Hakuba supposed that he could explain that he wasn't dating Aoko either, but then decided it wasn't worth the bother. He and the volatile Inspector's daughter had grown much closer since she had decided that he and Kuroba needed to be good friends. And at this point, it just wasn't worth the argument. Arguing about getting closer to either Aoko or Kuroba.

Aoko let out a soft giggle and he felt better for it. Her pulse was faster than normal against his fingers, but she'd evidently gotten past 'furious' and had moved on to 'scared-but-not-showing-it.’

"As talented as yer friend may be," Hattori was clearly skeptical and not making much of an effort to hide it, "I don't think he's gonna be able to find us before the police do."

"You've never met Kaito!" Aoko retorted hotly.

Hakuba was torn. Kuroba was the Kid, and if anyone could find them, it would be the Kid. However, as Kid had commented several times, he was not a detective. He was a thief and a very good one at that.

And Hakuba certainly was not going to take to standing on tall objects shouting, ' _Kid! Come here and steal me!!!_ '

Aoko tugged on his hand, wanting some backup in her argument. He stilled a grimace, not entirely completely sure what to say.

"Oh, ye of little faith," a familiar voice drawled. Toyama and Hattori joined them in looking up, where a ceiling panel removed itself and disappeared into the darkness above. A lithe figure in dark grey, not black, flipped out of it, landing in a crouch on the ground. "Hup!"

"Kaito!" Aoko cheered, releasing Hakuba's hand. The Osaka couple looked pole-axed and Hakuba could hear the noise of the other kids in the cell stirring with soft exclamations that sounded like hope.

"Sorry to take so long," Kuroba apologised, walking over to their cells. He crouched down, inspecting the lock on Aoko's door. "But I see you were in good hands." Blue-violet eyes flickered his way before returning to the examination of the lock.

"Someone had to keep her out of trouble," Hakuba retorted.

"How did ya find us?" Hattori inquired, suspicion colouring his tone.

Kuroba flashed a cellphone as he reached into the bag he carried over his shoulders. "Traced Aoko's cell phone back to its last known location. With as much trouble as she gets into, it's a handy thing to know."

"As much trouble as _I_ get into?!" Aoko growled. Kuroba gleefully dodged the swat she aimed for his head, pulling something egg-like out of his pack.

"Do me a favour, Aoko?" Kuroba requested, his tone light despite the fact that his expression was deadly serious. "Back up to the corner of the cell, wouldja? I'm not quite sure exactly how powerful these are. You too, Hakuba."

Hakuba quickly retreated to the far corner of his cell, arms up to cover his face. He noticed Hattori and Toyama doing the same. "Explosion?!" Toyama exclaimed.

"Yup." Kaito scampered back, pressed up against the side of Hakuba's cell. He pressed a button.

It wasn't so much of an explosion as a muffled sizzle. Kuroba scrambled forward, his expression thoughtful as he re-examined the lock.

"Kaito?" Aoko questioned, a bit of fear creeping into her tone. Hakuba moved forward, watching as Kuroba stood up, then kicked the bars with the heel of his shoe.

The door rattled open, sliding back a half metre.

Everyone froze, as if expecting guards to come running at any time.

Nothing.

Kuroba let out a breath, his shoulders slumping forward a bit in what was obviously relief. "C'mon Aoko, let’s get these people out of here."

A soft cheer and exultations went up from the people around them. Aoko jumped out of the cage, giving Kuroba an enthusiastic hug. Kuroba gave her a quick half hug, before crouching down and sliding off his pack and rifling through it.

"Would it not be easier for you to simply pick the locks?" Hakuba inquired.

"I'm not familiar with picking door locks." Kuroba retorted, pulling more egg like canisters, all business now. "Aoko darling, my lovely assistant, can you keep an eye out while I get this trick prepared?"

Aoko nodded, moving for the single door at the end of the hall, her bearing tall and proud once more, an Amazon in schoolgirl's clothing.

Kuroba's eyes flickered at him as he divided up the tiny explosives he carried and Hakuba realised the problem. From what Toyama had said, there were ten cells, but he could only see nine additional explosives. Which wouldn't be much of a problem if there was a guarantee that they wouldn't need the limited supply of explosives to get out of the building, much less the room. Hakuba wouldn't forgive himself if he got out and someone else did not. Or they did not get out at all.

"Do mine last," he said in a soft whisper, for Kuroba's ears only. Kuroba gave him an apologetic look, then a quick nod before scooping up the munitions and beginning work on the doors.

"Where'd ya get the explosives?" Hattori asked curiously as Kuroba attached the putty like substance he pulled from the eggs on the look of the Osaka detective's cell.

Kuroba tsk'ed at him, a wide grin on his face. "Magician's secret," he explained. "But they do come in handy, don't they?"

"If they work," Toyama agreed. She was obviously a bit more leery of the explosives. Kuroba chuckled at her, attaching the goop to her door before moving on. Hakuba kept an ear on him, noticing the quiet ease that Kuroba allayed the other people's fears as he went about in his attempt to free everyone.

"Yer boyfriend is impressive," Hattori commented casually.

"We are not dating and yes, he is," Hakuba agreed. Hattori snickered, obviously enjoying the teasing.

"Heiji!" Toyama scolded.

"What?" The dark skinned boy grinned, his expression full of fake innocence. "Don't you think they make a cute couple?"

"HEI-JI!"

"You would not happen to be related to someone named 'Koizumi,’ would you?" Hakuba inquired loftily.

"Eh?" Hattori blinked. "Not that I'm aware of."

"Pity," Hakuba sniffed. "You sound just like her."

Kuroba's snicker was surprisingly close. Hattori grinned in return, obviously equally at ease getting teased as he was teasing. Hakuba's assessment of the Osaka detective rose several notches.

Hakuba raised an eyebrow. "Done already?"

"Almost," Kuroba called back. There was some muttering, then the boy in dark clothing appeared. "I put one of the explosives on the main door." Kuroba informed him in a side whisper.

Hakuba nodded. Kuroba had understood what he meant, putting the others a higher priority than him. "Thank you."

Kuroba shrugged in response, pushing a small amount of the putty stuff against the joint where the bolt held the door shut, a wire sticking out of there like a squashed bug antennae. There wasn't as much of the explosive as on the other locks either, Kuroba must have pinched small pieces off of each one in an attempt to get Hakuba's lock open as well.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Kuroba called, his clear voice ringing in the confines of the room as he gathered everyone's attention. Hakuba made a mental note to work on both Kid and Kuroba on their pronunciation a bit more. Kuroba still leaned his 'L's a bit too much towards the 'R' sound. "If you would kindly move the back of your rooms, we'll blow this pop stand."

"Hopefully not literally," Hattori commented, retreating to the far corner of his room.

"At least not until later," Kuroba grinned. There were fangs there.

Hakuba found himself silently agreeing with them as he moved back to the corner of his own cell.

He was starting to wonder if exposure to the Kid was a good thing. He'd certainly gained more a more violent mindset since their visits, having wanted to blow up several buildings now.

Kuroba ducked into the cell that had been holding Aoko and began a count down. "Three, Two, One!"

The locks on Hattori and Toyama's cell went 'fssh'. The lock on Hakuba's cell made an odd popping noise, but that was about it. Hakuba grabbed the bars on his cage and heaved, but was dismayed to find he couldn't budge it. His cell was still locked.

Toyama and Hattori did not have that problem. They had their cell doors open with a minimum of fuss and a clear use of martial arts. Hakuba made a note not to go up against either of them in a fight anytime soon, both of them looked extremely vindictive at the moment.

Kuroba however was confused. "They should have all opened..." he muttered as he stepped out of the cell.

"We think there's somethin' blocking the cell phones," Hattori informed him. "It may be messin' with yer remotes as well."

"Short range it is then." Kuroba gave the lock on Hakuba's cell a cursorily glance, then shook his head. It hadn't worked. Hakuba motioned for him to get the others. Kuroba nodded, heading down the corridor to the next set of people. "Here we go again."

Applying the trigger from a central location appeared to work better, the locks on the remaining six cells went 'fssh'. Kuroba, Hattori and Toyama opened the doors, getting the smaller kids out as fast as they could.

"I haven't heard anything from outside," Aoko informed them. "Are we rea... Wait. What about Hakuba-kun?"

"I didn't have enough explosive," Kuroba said apologetically. Hakuba couldn't see them, but he could hear who he assumed to be Kuroba take off a backpack and rifle through it. "Here. Take these, just toss 'em and they make a big cloud of smoke. Aoko, find a mop or a broom or something. You two from Osaka, can you get everyone out in one piece? Good. I'll get Hakuba out of here and we'll bring up the rear. The police got an anonymous tip about this place, so they should be here shortly. You guys just focus on getting outta here, okay?"

"Kaito?" Aoko's voice sounded shaky, and there was a pause. Hakuba smiled, knowing that Kuroba was going to look out for his sister, no matter what. It'd be okay.

"One... two... three!" A final 'fssh' sound, then footsteps. They were gone, out the doors. Kuroba hurried back, pulling items out of his pockets.

"They going to be okay?" Hakuba asked anyway, more for something to talk about.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah." Kuroba's eyes had a distracted edge to them, like he was walking on a tightrope, juggling and attempting to pick locks all at the same time. He knelt down and began to work on the lock.

This... was not going to work.

Hakuba knew he was not a good judge of people's motivations. But he knew Kid. He knew Kuroba. Kid and Kuroba were two halves of the same coin. Same person, different faces.

And right now, they needed the Kid's skills, not Kuroba's. Which obviously Kuroba felt uncomfortable using in front of him.

"Kuroba." He tapped the kneeling boy's shoulder. Kuroba looked up at him, his face a mask of concentration.

-an image to save for another time and place....

Hakuba motioned for him to stand up, so that they were closer to eyelevel. As close to eyelevel as they could get with a six-centimetre height difference anyway. Kuroba did, his eyes slightly rounded in confusion. "Yeah?"

"Do not hold yourself back on my account," Hakuba said slowly.

Confusion became more apparent. "Hakuba-?"

"Do not." He rested his hands on Kuroba's shoulders, putting careful emphasis on each word. "Hold yourself back because of me."

Kuroba got it. He could practically see the knowledge finally sink in and click into place. There was a slight pause, as if he was just now realising that Yes, Hakuba knew that he was the Kaitou Kid, Yes, he was quite comfortable with that knowledge and No, Hakuba was not going to say anything about. To anyone.

Kuroba took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he slowly let it out. He seemed to transform then, his features becoming sharper, the eyes clearer as Kuroba personality receded into the background and the Kid took his place.

"Right." Kid-in-Kuroba said, the voice dropping down to the clipped businesslike tones the Kid used. "Let's get to work."

This time when the other boy knelt down to work on the lock, it was undone in a matter of seconds, not the minutes that a learning magician would need.

"There was no one guarding the room?" Hakuba inquired as he helped slide the door to the side so he could walk through.

"I looped the security tapes when I took care of the alarm systems I could find," Kid said, stepping back. "As far as they know, you're still asleep."

"And no one has escaped."

"Precisely." Kid slipped his instruments back where they had been hidden. Hakuba paused him a moment by pulling him into a half hug and giving him a quick kiss, a silent grateful thank you that the Kid reciprocated.

"I know that you probably just came for your sister, but thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcome," Kid commented back, his violet eyes gentling for a moment before the impassive shields came back up. "But I'd recommend that we follow their example before our gracious hosts decide to visit. These people aren't as accommodating as the police while in pursuit."

Cold fingers shivered down his skin, Kid's words sinking in. "These are the people who shoot at you."

Kid didn't answer as he made haste to the door. Hakuba followed on his heels, suddenly more than eager to leave the room as well.

They jogged through the halls, Kid following some already pre-determined path with a confident air. It looked like they were in some sort of warehouse complex, but with the amount of noise that they had made, and the noise that the group ahead of them would make, Hakuba was surprised at the stillness of it.

"No guards?" he mused in a half whisper.

Kid started to stumble, then caught himself. "Hakuba?"

"Yes?"

"Run."

Kid took off at one of his near legendary sprints, pushing Hakuba to the limit to stay with him. They turned a corner and spotted the group of Officers’ children, moving at a quick trot, but not nearly as fast as the two of them had been.

"Go!" Kid shouted, waving an arm. "Go-Go-Go **GO**!"

Fortunately the others didn't stop to ask, picking up their pace to a dead run, trusting the frenzied instructions. The doors were right ahead of them; Aoko hit them, opening them with excessive force as she burst through. A thin high-pitched electronic wail, like a computer monitor going bad began to echo in Hakuba's head.

The place was booby-trapped.

"Keep RUNNING!" Kid bellowed as Hattori, who was bringing up the rear, disappeared into the night air outside. The high-pitched whine turned into a series of beeps.

"Kid-"

"Shut up, shut up shutup," became the growled chant as they both stretched their legs to the limits, picking up a fraction more speed as they bolted through the door, Kid slightly ahead of Hakuba.

The beeping stopped.

Hakuba leaped, tackling Kid and shielding the smaller body with his own as something in the building behind them exploded, the roaring push of the heat and air momentarily lifting them up and flinging them further away. Arms still around Kid, they hit the ground hard and rolled, coming to a rest with Hakuba half sprawled over Kid's body.

"Bastard," Kid grumbled into the dirt. "Always knew you wanted to be on top."

"Fine, fine, you can be on top next time," Hakuba countered, his legs scrambling for purchase as he half-rolled off Kid and tugged him to his feet. "But now, belt up and run."

"Right," Kid grunted, staggering to his feet. Holding on to each other like a pair of drunks, they quickly stumbled away from the now burning building and towards where the others watched, huddled together in the crisp October air. Aoko wrapped her arms around them both as they collapsed, adrenaline buzzing through Hakuba's ears as he panted for breath. Oh, he was going to feel this later...

"Wow," Hattori commented, just a bit of awe in his tone as they watched the building and its contents go up in smoke, the faint sound of sirens echoing from a distance. "Ya really did blow that pop stand."

• • •

"I want in." Hakuba's voice was low and slightly hushed, primarily due to the fact that the lower half of his face was currently buried in the wind-tousled hair of the Kid. Kid smelled a bit like antiseptic, smoke and doves, with a clean, wild scent underneath, like the wind itself. "I want to take these bastards down."

Kid had shown up shortly after he had dragged himself into his room, torn between exhaustion from the adrenaline withdrawals and the sheer fury roaring through his veins. Kid hadn't said anything as he'd stepped warily into the room, like a frightened cat. Hakuba had held one hand out and Kid had paused for a moment, then took it, allowing himself to be pulled into a fierce embrace that he returned with equal fervour.

They had stayed like that for a while, Hakuba not bothering to calculate how long, taking assurance in the fact that Kuroba, no, the Kid, was here and he was all right. When they had begun to sway in place, like tired dancers, they'd shifted to the bed, Kid losing the hat and the cape on the way. Kid was currently sitting between Hakuba's legs, leaning against Hakuba's chest, using it as a back rest. The red tie was loosened around Kid's neck, the top button undone in a way that looked deliciously wanton, even if the real purpose behind it was to avoid aggravating a bandaged cut on the thief's neck. Hakuba was contently wrapped around the Kid, Kid's arms covering his, their fingers loosely entwined.

"No."

"Yes."

"No," Kid growled, his gloved hand squeezing Hakuba's in a surprisingly protective gesture. "You can't cross that line, -Tantei-san-."

Hakuba snorted, bitter amusement welling up inside of him. A bit late for that. Wasn't that exactly what he had been doing every time he saw Kid and didn't report him? Crossing the line between lawful and not? Blurring that line between 'right' and 'wrong' until it was nothing but a hazy shade of grey?

"Too late."

"No, it is not," Kid snapped back. "You don't want to be involved in this."

"I am already involved." He drew a breath in, inhaling Kid's scent as he did so, closing his eyes as he tried to figure a way to explain this to the thief. He reached up, fingers tracing around the monocle but not removing it. At least not yet. "I am not involved merely because of this. Because of you. They brought this fight to me today."

He sighed; tilting his head back against the headboard and filling the thief in with the facts he most likely missed since he wasn't involved in some of the cleanup afterwards. Kuroba had been scolded thoroughly for butting into police business, and then thanked profusely by the parents of the children for his bravery. When Aoko had been sent home, Kuroba had gone with her. Hakuba had stayed behind with Hattori and Toyama, going over the remaining puzzle pieces.

Not that there had been much of anything useful left behind in the charred remains of the rubble.

"Nakamori and his men were the first ones on the scene," he began in a low tone. "The doors of the warehouse were wired to set off the explosion once anyone opened them. If you, if -Kuroba- had not gotten us out first, we all would have perished when the warehouse blew."

Kid tensed against him, the intertwined fingers squeezing his painfully. He and Kuroba had taken the brunt of the injuries by virtue of being the last ones out. Well technically, he had, since he'd managed to shield Kuroba to the best of his abilities. Both of them were bruised, scratched and sore, but nothing that they couldn't recover from by taking it easy for a few days.

Or so the paramedics said.

"It is bad enough watching them shoot at you and being unable to stop them," he said softly, sliding his hand down the side of the Kid's face, past the shoulder to hover over the scars over the on the upper arm. The one he had helped to bandage, and the one he still didn't know where it had come from. "But they did not just shoot at you today. It is not about them capturing me. Kid... They got Aoko-kun. They kidnapped children and risked the lives of police officers we know. They crossed the line, they brought me into this today."

That was the heart of it right there. He could overlook his own capture; he'd anticipated some sort of trouble from the beginning, inviting a thief into his home. And at least he had a clue about these mysterious murderous people.

It was the capture and cold-blooded premeditated planning to kill the other hostages, who had been innocent that riled him up. That they had aimed a double blow at the law enforcement by killing both family and officers pushed him even farther. But them involving Aoko and by default Kuroba made him see red.

No one touched those he cared about. Not without retribution.

One of Kid's hands unwrapped itself from Hakuba and reached up, burrowing itself into Hakuba's hair and moving his fingers in soothing circles, stroking his hair. Hakuba dropped his head down pressing a kiss against the thief's forehead in silent apology as he let his grip relax slightly around the other boy. He had not been aware that he had been holding the Kid so tightly.

"I am not volunteering to help you plan your heists," he said into the Kid's hair, revelling in the texture and closeness. "I just want to put these bastards away."

Where they couldn't hurt those few he cared about again.

Kid's fingers in his hair tightened, almost to a painful level, but he said nothing for a long while. Finally his fingers relaxed and continued their massage.

"I don't like this."

"I know," he whispered back. "But I can understand things you cannot. You create, I deconstruct. I can see patterns that you might overlook."

"I'm not a detective."

"I am not a thief."

"I know." There was a sharp hint to Kid's voice that Hakuba had better not be considering it either.

-Kaitou were territorial after all.

They fell silent after that, the events of the day catching up with Hakuba and he found himself eventually drifting off to sleep, lulled by the Kid's presence and warmth around him.

He woke up several hours later, the breeze from the open window giving him a chill, his body protesting its recent abuse. There was no sign of Kid, not that that was a surprise. What was a surprise was the fact that his computer was on, a file open on the screen.

Curious, he slipped on his glasses and padded over to the computer, ignoring the coolness of the room. The file was a news article from less than two years ago, the last case of the famous detective of the East, Kudo Shin'ichi. He read the article, then paused.

Picking up the mouse, he opened up his computer's internet history. The most current entry, the one he was looking at had been opened approximately twenty minutes ago. He scrolled down until he found the websites listed that he had visited earlier that day, then began to scroll upwards, perusing the newly created files.

Links listed included a hodgepodge of electronics, video games, various news articles, obituary notices and one from pantheon.org, on the Greek myth of Pandora.

Hakuba pushed his glasses higher on his nose and began to read.

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> • How many times did Kid say 'Go' as they were rushing out?  
> "Go" (Five) *snickers* 
> 
> • Everyone's watches are missing because of Conan's dart watch. Voices inform me that Kuroba retrieved them. 
> 
> • Many many thanks to Kaitou Ann for helping us with the parent's titles. 
> 
> Please no comments about that's not how Hattori or Hakuba met or reacted in canon, as it will only make you look foolish.   
> **This was written in 2004**. They didn't meet in the manga until 2006, or in the [anime until 2007](http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki/Three_Days_with_Heiji_Hattori). Thanks.]


End file.
